Many people might know Janet Schmidly simply as the first lady of Texas Tech, and she’ll be the first to tell you that being Tech President David Schmidly’s wife means she has an image and a reputation to uphold.
But what most people might not know is, like her husband, she once roamed this campus as a student. She walked the halls of many of its buildings, attended classes and took exams.
Janet Schmidly said she owes her career to her years as a student at Tech.
"I used to be shy and not have a lot of confidence," she said. "Texas Tech, in general, molded me as a person."
Schmidly graduated with a degree in elementary education and a minor in speech communication in 1966.
After that, she taught second grade at Stewart Elementary School in Lubbock while her David Schmidly attended graduate school. Following her husband’s graduation, they moved to Illinois, where they had a baby girl.
Janet Schmidly taught second grade for two more years in the late 1960s. She described education in the north as being almost completely different from the south during the ’60s. She said she taught a self-paced curriculum in which students were able to learn at their own speed. She said this laid the background for the rest of her life.
"I learned to individualize instruction with everyone on a different level," she said.
The Schmidly family then moved to College Station, where Janet Schmidly taught for 24 years and continued her own education. Her years of teaching in the College Station Independent School District consisted of second grade, third grade and remedial reading.
She also taught At Risk, a program designed to help children of all grade levels with any subject and also was the special education behavior coordinator for her school.
"I really enjoyed every year of it," she said.
The At Risk program was the area she enjoyed the most of her career. To be able to customize the learning and fit it in to the children’s needs, she said, was very rewarding.
While in College Station, Schmidly said, she had her hands full with two children in addition to the teaching.
"I really enjoyed being the soccer mom and the drill team parent," she said.
Schmidly said she loved teaching in the College Station so much so that when her husband received a job offer in Galveston, she commuted to her job every day in College Station.
"I feel fortunate I’ve always taught in an academic community," she said.
After 27 years of teaching, Schmidly decided to call it quits when she came back to Lubbock. Although it was very hard at first not to be teaching, she said, she thinks she had the most rewarding profession there is for almost three decades.
She does many things with her time to help the Lubbock community. Schmidly is on the board of directors of Tech’s Ronald McDonald House, and she is a member of Achievement Rewards for College Scientists and Keep Lubbock Beautiful. Schmidly also started a program called Raider Scrapers, part of Campus Caregivers, which hosts Arbor Day each year.
Speaking about her days as a student at Tech, Schmidly said, it served her and her classmates well.
"We were all hired after we graduated and stayed in the profession," she said. "I gained what was needed for the rest of my life. I felt confident in what I learned here for the state of Texas or other states."
Her advice to other students working toward a career in education is to pay attention and enjoy your subjects.
"They need to enjoy children," she said. "Every child is unique. There is something special about every child if you just take the time to realize it."
Schmidly said she wishes people would recognize the importance of teachers.
"In Europe, teachers are held in the highest regard," she said. "Our youth is the future of tomorrow. Make them successful citizens who contribute back to their country."
The phrase that Schmidly has been using lately is one she thinks everyone should live by.
"A child needs loving the most," she said, "when they are the least loveable."
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