Kathy Lifka: St. Sebastian Teacher 1977-1979

Kathy Lifka, St. Sebastian Teacher 1977-1979: "Michael Wierzbicki was principal at that time. He was a fair, but firm leader. I later ran into him at the Joliet Diocese where he was Assistant Superintendent of Personnel. He is now retired. I believe we had two Sisters of Charity. One was around 60, and the other was around 30. The younger one left in the fall of my second year for personal reasons. I taught 9th-12th grade English and two history classes. I remember I had very few materials, and had to find my own resources wherever I could. I also began a newspaper which we printed on the mimeo machine. Of course, the "news" was pretty well known among the girls already, but they loved it.

From Kathy Lifka (former teacher, 1977-79):

"I ran across your website about closed schools, and St. Sebastian was one of those schools. My first teaching job was at St. Sebastian from 1977-1979 when the high school closed. There were 120 girls with eight teachers, I believe. I have forgotten most names, but here is what I remember.

"Michael Wierzbicki was principal at that time. He was a fair, but firm leader. I later ran into him at the Joliet Diocese where he was Assistant Superintendent of Personnel. He is now retired. I believe we had two Sisters of Charity. One was around 60, and the other was around 30. The younger one left in the fall of my second year for personal reasons. I taught 9th-12th grade English and two history classes. I remember I had very few materials, and had to find my own resources wherever I could. I also began a newspaper which we printed on the mimeo machine. Of course, the "news" was pretty well known among the girls already, but they loved it.

"If I remember correctly, there were gang problems in Chicago, and we had one girl bring in a knife. We had other minor arguments, but overall, the girls were pretty sheltered. We would have dances once or twice a year, and the girls were allowed to bring dates. They would basically do a two-step shuffle for the slow dances.

"The teachers I remember include Janice Bloomfield and Rita Favorite Blickenstaff. I can "see" the science teacher and the one male teacher we had, but I cannot remember their names. We taught English/reading, history, science, math, and religion. The girls were from various cultures, and only a few went onto college. One of my freshmen was already a mother of two living with her boyfriend while attending school; I believe she was 15 at the time. I remember the first grade teacher was Emily Peacock (1932-2009) of the Peacock family of jewelers. She truly loved teaching, and she was very unassuming.

"I also taught at Maria High School at 67th and California from 1996-2003. Both schools were very dear to me. This is not much, I am sorry. It is nice to know that St. Sebastian will be remembered."

Originally posted at Illinoishsglorydays.com/id829.html.