Interview with Maura Friedel Manley

Maura Friedel Manley graduated from Towson State to university in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in Elementary education. Miss Manley has taught both special education and English over her 30-year career.

She has also taught business courses in higher education after receiving her MBA in 1985. These are her reflections. Miss Manley, thank you so much for taking your time to come in

and share with us your preparation to become a teacher at Towson University and your subsequent career both in education and some other things as well. I think probably a good place to begin is in the beginning.

So if you would, would you share a little about your early social context, where you grew up, what kinds of thoughts you were having about what you might, what career you might want to pursue when you graduated from high school or college?

My mother was an actual elementary education teacher and she taught at Leith Walk for years under Doctor Miller. And she actually was on TV doing a lesson one time. My earliest recollection, I was about four years old.

And as all teachers know, it's a paranoid kind of thing, you bring all your, it's like nesting. You bring all your materials home or you have them in the

back of your car. And I remember she had a picture of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, I guess, that she put, you know, up on the wall.

And I was about four years old and I had the little, it's funny what happens in life. They had given me a grocery cart thing or how you could buy groceries and play with that.

And then I had Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, and I decided I wanted to be a teacher, probably about four years old. It's one of my earliest recollections because of these

two pictures. And I'd hang it and play with my little friends outside. I was the teacher showing Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.

And then after we finished that, I would throw the food through the grocery cart. And you fast forward it 50 years later and my mind's always on food, it seems, you know, for eating and the teaching.

So that's the earliest recollection. So in high school, what were you thinking in terms of college or career? It was, this is terrible, Doctor Blair, but our junior prom, it

was the night after the junior prom and it was our first year of the SAT. SAT had not been given before. So we had had the junior prom the night before and this is how I'll get to teaching.

It was the SAT test, first SAT test, and I was just really too tired to mess with it. I've always been, well liberal arts for Towson, but artsy-fartsy. Straight A's with drama, English, all that, not so much

with math and science. And so I'm looking at the SAT and I'm like, I really can't be bothered with this this morning. So I actually made a design that day, not really reading the

questions, but going back, you know, making the design, finishing it, turning it in. And then my results, thank heavens again. My results came in at about 900 or 1000 because...

You did very well. For not even reading the questions, you know. But it was not important. That was like the first year for that moment. So when it came time to going to colleges and all that, and

I was very much in like with this wrestler at John Carroll. I went to John Carroll High School and boys, I loved boys. So I really didn't care where I went to college. I just knew I kind of wanted to teach.

So again, I only, and my folks were very middle class and I was a lifeguard, so we weren't looking at... It was only what you could afford. And I just thought, teaching, what I can afford.

I'm going to apply to Towson. Well, didn't hear anything. I think they lost my application. I mean, five months.

So my father called the principal. The principal was Donald Sudbrink at the time at John Carroll. And he said, well, let me give a call.

And again, this is back in dinosaur era, you know, 1975. He just called Mr. you know, President Fisher and he said Mara Friedel's application, can you find it?

Where is it? And sure enough, within 10, 15 minutes they found and he goes, She's in. So it wasn't "application processed."

It wasn't... I think back then maybe we paid $20, you know, to apply. It wasn't a big deal for me to... I really didn't, I don't want to say I didn't really care, but

I knew I wanted to be a teacher and that's what I'd be. But I was more interested at the time in my "MRS" degree. I wanted to find somebody and I had this old Fairlane 500

and the parking back then was with the administration. I looked today, I practically had a heart attack this morning. I mean, just going from the parking lot, going down that hill to Hawkins.

It's a little foothill for anybody else. I'm like, (wheezing) Land in Linthicum where I used to do English and I'm going, where's Psych, I missed Psych because it's this way. But in college it's amazing.

That's why I was 60 lbs thinner, walking that park and then going all the way to Smith and Stevens. Just amazing. So you were a commuting student.

Commuting every day. You did not live on campus? Did not live on campus. And it was a total of 900 or $1000 a year.

So I had no student loans. I'd start 8:00 class. Nobody wanted 8:00 class. And I did my class till 12:00.

And then I went to Student Union for Young and the Restless, and watched Young and the Restless from twelve to one, had one more class then did... It's amazing. To tennis. Oh, and I also picked elementary,

and I wanted to teach, but I thought, well, business would be too tough. I know I can do these homework pretty easy or whatever. And then I did tennis from like 2:00 to 4:30.

Then I did Joseph Banks, I was there all through college from 5:00 to 9:00. And then I did my homework from 9:00 to 10:00 and then bed. I mean I did all that like in one hour.

It was amazing. So that was amazing. It is amazing. What do you remember about your coursework here?

Do you have any recollection? Did you have professors that particularly inspired you? Yes, yes, yes. I absolutely loved my coursework.

My favorite course of all times was creative writing with Doctor Friedman. And he just, you know, retired, but he always put on my papers HR for Harlequin Romance.

And he says, oh, that... I saw him last year. And he goes, oh, that was horrible of me. And I said, no, I remember it. And then he'd say, Friedel, you're like a Ford A-car.

You just keep whipping them out, you know, like, and I did, it was fun. But he was very inspirational and fun and obnoxious and I just loved it.

And then there was, I cannot remember. It starts with an H, not Hilliard, but it was like that. But he taught the course, it was my very first course on India and it was a big... And I saw

him at the Asian thing last year. And then I actually went to Europe for the very first time under Doctor Armand Mruck and he he was very nice and I saw him, I've seen him recently.

So they were very, very inspirational. Hawkins Hall had just been created when... And my courses, maybe already answering another question, but my courses in education, nothing was too hard, too difficult, because I loved it.

If I love something, it's easy for me, in my past. The only thing in education that was a little tough was you had to take a piano course, like a six day a week piano course.

Really? Had to play a basic... And I can remember "every good boy does fine" and "face" in between, you know? But I can't...

I mean, I barely made a C on that one. It was tough for me. I don't know, there's something with the brain I can't connect with.

And yet other people were just... I'm great with the kazoo and I can play that. Yeah. And everybody can play the kazoo. So yeah.

You can all do it together. The education courses were great. My greatest thing with the two education courses and what I found I got the most out of for Towson and for teaching

elementary was there was a course in children's books. And we had to make a huge file. We had to read in a semester like 80 children's, probably more, but I'm saying 80 children's books.

But classify it, what it was, about the author. And of course we had that ready and handy when we went into the classroom. That was phenomenal.

The other, and I still sing it to this day when they're, you know, out of control. She was a LOL, little old lady, and she came out of Lida Lee Tall.

I cannot remember her name, but she did the extra course works for songs like when when your children are acting like maniacs and then saying, you know, how to control them. And there was this one song we learned, two songs, the teddy bear

song, teddy bear, teddy bear, go around, teddy bear, teddy bear, touch the ground. Have you ever heard that? No. But the other one to this day it's, you know, Top 40 hit, top

two hit. They love it. It's called the Peanut Butter and Jelly Song, and that was worth $4,000, the whole tuition.

It goes... Here we go. It goes peanut, peanut, butter, jelly, jelly, peanut, peanut butter, jelly, jelly. First you take the peanuts and you crunch them,

you crunch them. First you take the peanuts and you crunch them, you crunch them for the peanut, peanut butter, jelly, jelly,

peanut, then the next one. Then you take the grapes and you smush them, you smush them. Then you take the grapes and you smush them,

I'm going fast, for the peanut, peanut butter. Then you take the bread and you spread it, you spread it, then you take the bread and you spread it for the peanut, peanut...

Then you take the sandwich and you eat it, you eat it, then you take the sandwich and you eat it. Peanut, peanut... Top hit to this day. (laughing)

That's what I... And now the courses I needed to repeat was, I hated science, hated science. Biology I had to take twice. I still don't know how I got through the second time.

And yet I got to say today for, and you know, the fear just followed me through and, like, through elementary ed, whenever it's science, it's like, well, we'll do the minimum of that or I'll look at the...

But what's really changed me in the last ten years, Towson University has something at Hackerman Hall called Saturday Science under Doctor Donald Thomas. I started ten years ago.

I'm not afraid anymore. I'm now a smart science person, you know. Wonderful. Yeah. But I eat my doughnut and my coffee and I watch.

And he made it not scary. And whoever it was that gave that grant, I think that is probably the most greatest, phenomenal, wonderful things.

I mean, you see wise men, you see all the famous people downtown, Harry and whatever the Knotts and all that. I don't think any of that can touch this because of what it's doing for the children and for adults like me that thought I'm

too stupid for something, and I'm not. I just didn't know. Right. And it was how it's taught and what I've learned.

Did you, I assume you student taught? Where did you do that? Did my student teaching too? I did special education out in Harford County and then I

can't remember the school, but I can remember the school in Baltimore City. It was George Washington Elementary in Pigtown and had the first grade and back then, again, I'll tell a little side

story, always affected me, when it was either first or second day, back then it was way before, just before Donald Schaefer did the dollar houses and that kind of thing. But it was very, very poor then.

And that's in first grade. And there was a little boy and I was just so shocked, idealistic, about 18 years old, middle class, happy. And the teacher, this little boy, they had taken him to the

nurse because hygienically he was so sore and they looked and he hadn't been wiped properly and he was just encased and all that. And they got him fresh clothes and all that.

And I thought, my gosh, you have to deal with that kind of stuff in teaching and yes, you do. And that was so sad because here it was, they said, I didn't see it, but the sores and all that.

But the teachers were actually doing that. And things have changed, but not really. But that's another thing that you don't see in the university. They don't teach you that.

They don't tell you that. Are you feeling confident when you're graduating? You have... Graduating with a degree in elementary ed, and are you ready to find that teaching job? Yes, and back then,

you know, when you're 21, 22, or it was my personality, nothing will get you down, and Towson also had just started a Career Center, but at the time there were no teaching jobs available in 1979.

I don't know, there was a glut. But it really didn't get me down because Towson found me a position, I went into business with the Hecht company as a manager in charge of the accessories department.

So I found work within like a month and a half. Now that's interesting. Do you think any of those skills that you learned in preparing to be a teacher helped you in your position at Hecht's?

Yes, and they definitely said that, you know, a lot of business companies and all want a teacher automatically because we have the skill set of the listening, of organizational skills.

We are definitely marketing and selling every day having to do it in different ways. Sneakily a lot of times. Is that a word, sneakily? I don't think so. Sounds great. But that's why they want us, and

also, I'll never regret, you know, teaching. It was my Bachelor of Science, but it was basic liberal arts and it's a broad spectrum. You know, it's sort of like going to the doctor for a broad

spectrum if you're sick or whatever. But it covers the bases. Yeah. Covers the bases. So how long were you at Hecht'S?

One year. Oh, OK. One year. And then I was offered a position with Colgate Palmolive and I was their first female on the East Coast doing the

household product division. Wow. And how long did you stay with them? That was two years.

And then they laid off our division and I got got married. And that's an interesting story too, how I met... But we went out West to California. And that's then when I got my master's degree and that's then

when I started teaching. So interestingly, that master's degree was not in education. No, it was in business administration. Because then I was forward thinking, thinking, OK, you

know, the last two things have been business positions and all that. But we had moved from Newport Beach, California to Riverside and I got my degree and I had noticed that the Community College needed

somebody with sales and marketing to teach. And I thought, oh gosh, I'm doing that. And at the time... And I can't stand teachers that talk from the book and weren't doing the walk.

And I had gone then to Brown and Williamson Tobacco. I was their top rub and that's before, you know, cigarettes became a bad thing. So during the day sold the cigarettes and at night taught

how to do that and the business and all that. So I actually taught for six years there, and I've got to say, Brown and Williamson, it was phenomenal and wonderful. I never smoked a cigarette in my life, but I was their top rub.

Again, it came down to the area that you're in and what sells, you know, the poor area. It's the candy, it's the hamburger, it's the cigarettes, it's the beer.

Wealthier areas, different products. Sure. So, you did get back into teaching, and you were teaching, I assume this would be college age or maybe even adults that were a little older.

Exactly, for six years in California and then two years in Washington state. I didn't get back into the elementary ed sector where actually my undergraduate in Towson was until we moved to Indiana,

but it was more of a special education, elementary special education, and then moving back to Maryland. Then it actually became elementary education, didn't have special ed positions, basically a chameleon, you know, just move

wherever the position lies. And in elementary back here, basically fourth grade. Now, the last 13 years it's been special ed, but it's generally four, five, and six. With special education itself,

my special ed, it's been self-contained or life skills. So it's all one classroom and it's two or three. And when you were in Indiana, were you in a public school setting? Public school setting.

They did something quite differently. Now, this is seventeen years ago. We were in the same building, but we were in the furthest point of the building, all enclosed.

Very sad really when you think, and no windows, no anything. So nobody could hear us. We were just like, they didn't really... Well, you're treated that way, but you really don't feel like you're

being treated that way. But it was like we were the non- entity. You know, if you don't see us, we don't exist.

Well, I guess the good news part of that would be you could sort of do your own thing so that you had maybe more degrees of freedom than... And that's why they had those children. Yeah, because we had six and it was like, you could go outside

and they built benches, a walk. They were considered emotionally disturbed. And then, and there, and again when I moved to Maryland it was a whole different story.

But they did not take medication, so you really had to, to calm them down, we had the workout stuff right in the room. So

no regular class is pumping iron, but they're pumping iron and doing calisthenics for the first twenty minutes so they can be calm and then relate on a book level. And what age, what ages?

That was four, five, and six in Indiana. Yeah. Now, did you have to go back and get further education or training to be certified?

I had to. Now, in Maryland, yes. But not in Indiana. Not in Indiana, no, because I wasn't, in Indiana, where I started,

I was not the certified teacher. I was the assistant. That what we call here in Maryland para-educator. And you come back to Maryland. And I go right to Shepard Pratt, not as a

client. But what's interesting that was kind of nice, is an advantage, if you teach there or whatever you do have free counseling services if you want. But I was at the Forbush school and they actually, I was

at the RTC section, the residential treatment where it was enclosed. I see. And there were only four students.

I actually had four. There were a total of twelve and that's a happy and a sad thing. They're very, very bad off and of the twelve, 20% will make it out in the normal world again.

But they've had severe trauma or something's really happened. But they do everything they can because they have their own personal psychiatrist, nurse, social worker, regular teacher, right in that little sector.

And Forbush school is for patients of Shepard Pratt? No, it was actually the outside. Normally it was called level 5. Like, they would be diagnosed, let's say from Baltimore City or

Baltimore County... I see. ...through an IEP, an individual education plan, and everybody would be sitting and the the documentation may be for, it'd be at least a year, I would say.

And they'd say, oh gosh, Jimmy really needs special services. He's... The behavior plan hasn't worked here. You know, he's running the halls. He's really bad off.

He needs the Forbush school and it definitely would have to be recommended and then he'd go to Forbush. Now the center I was at, and I can say it now because I'm not there, I've been out for seventeen years.

Everything used to be confidential, but I don't know if you remember the newspaper, it would be something very traumatized or something that would be newsworthy. But one of the girls, I don't know if you remember, it was

like twenty years ago, and remember the two little white girls that were stuck in the closet in Pikesville and they found they had been starved to death by their family and they found, and the one died, didn't make it, and the other did.

And she was immediately sent to Forbush. So that was, but to be in my center, you had to have something like that. Yours was residential.

And now were there day students at Forbush too? They do have day students that, yeah, came in, and we were actually at a big white house called the Chapman Center. And see, everything's changed.

GBMC's come in and from my knowledge, because I haven't been there like in ten years, but Forbush School now has left the Shepherd Pratt campus and I know they're out in Cockeysville off near McCormick.

And so that is definitely day- hop because you see the buses coming and going. And you were there for... Three years, three years. And then I went with, I taught private high school at Towson

Catholic for two years till they closed. And then I went with Baltimore County for four years. And then, I'm always very lucky. And then I was at Chesapeake High School special education

and then they closed our school. They did something called a zero base. We had not achieved level standards. The kids had really performed quite poorly.

So it's the nice way of saying they fired everybody in the school, including the librarian and the nurse. I don't know how the nurse could have affected the child, but we all got wiped out.

And so they replaced everybody, all eighty people. And, yeah. And so I've been with the city since 2004 and right now I'm doing special education and elementary ed, special ed, life skills, and

then most currently this year doing resource teaching. And that's the best that I've done because I'm ready to not retire but slow down because it gets very wearisome after a while.

And but resource is just pulling the children out, they're generally special education and they need extra help between three and five hours a week in a specific subject, or maybe both subjects, generally reading and math.

But you've undertaken another enterprise, which is a business of your own. Could you tell us about this? Well, two businesses, actually, but Gains in Brains tutoring, I

started that in 2000 because, as you know, teachers don't make all that much, and in summertime I'm extra poor. So Gains in Brains was tutoring and I just started, I thought, well, gosh, there's such a need for that.

And I started, this is before websites, just putting a little card on the bulletin board at Graul's and Eddie's and got phone calls and then Roger Ford's newsletter. And then I knew somebody that knew how to do a website and he

actually created a website for me, Gains in Brains tutoring. And it's held its own, up and through this year, but I still have a quite... But it taught everything, you know, the reading, but got a lot of calls again for the special ed, the

remedial work. But what we also offer is I have one other person that works with me and he strictly does Latin and that's big, big, because it's... Not a dead language, and I don't know a thing, but I know

pig Latin but not Latin Latin. I know like three Latin words and I've asked them on a few occasions, "I really want to learn," haven't gotten around to it.

And that's a sad thing because he'll probably die before I get to learn. He's an older gentleman and I'll tell you that story too, and that's very interesting, is Boys' Latin still does Latin.

Towson Catholic did Latin and we've gotten a lot of people. He charges $60.00 an hour and he goes to the house and all for that. But one of the most interesting cases is, and I won't... I'll tell

you the name after the video and all, but this one gentleman called six years ago. And I really think this is like Tuesdays with Morrie. And the gentleman is a poet, had worked at Georgetown University,

blah, blah, blah, very cerebral. But he wanted to learn Latin. So my assistant went over to this gentleman's house and they've been meeting, they were meeting every Tuesday, but

they've been doing this for six years. Now, the man that teaches the Latin will be 85 in August. And it's gotten to the point now, and this is my longest client, most of my clients are maybe a year.

Quite often in most tutoring, I only see somebody maybe once or twice. I mean, that's, you know, they just need a pick-me-up. I had one boy.

Oh, I loved him to pieces. And he's probably seventh grade now. I actually had him for four years. He started first grade.

He was Jewish. He couldn't read. His last name was Fleischer. And I remember it was just dragging on.

And then over the four years, he gained more and more and more confidence. And now I guess he's probably eighth grade. But I stopped seeing him when he was in fourth grade.

And his grandma called probably two years ago. And she says, I just want you to know that Noah's made, like, Dean's list. He's doing this and that.

And she said, and it's all because of you. When we remember with the first grade when he couldn't, you know, do anything. And I remember one week, too, there was... He had a Snickers bar or something and was eating.

I said, oh, I love that, now I wish I had one. And the following week he came. He said, Mrs. Manley, here's a Snickers for you.

But getting back to the assistant, it's this Tuesdays with Morrie, and he no longer can drive because he'll be almost 85 So, the client is actually coming to my assistant's house now and

they switched from Tuesdays to Fridays and he's still very, I mean, my assistant still can do it. I mean, I don't... He's falling apart, like, physically. I mean, he can still walk, but I just think it's just so

compassionate, sweet how the other guy's coming to still listen. And I think they're only, from what I hear from both of them, they do the talking or the study for maybe an hour, but they've

developed eating Pepperidge Farm cookies, Milano cookies and drinking tea and coffee and then talking sports for another hour. There you go. But it's been a real... It's developed into a friendship.

So that's that's Gains in Brains. So. And did you say you also had a second? Oh, the other.

Yeah. The other position, not at all educational, I learned it through CCBC, is tarot card reading. And I also do storytelling.

As you can tell, I'm a Maura Monologue, but tarot card reading, and that's loads of fun. That I haven't really done in two years because of the economy. But when the economy is good, my goodness gracious.

I mean, I got more phone calls for like little wedding rehearsals, you know, like Bachelorette things, parties around, real big hit around October, Halloween, you know, so I call myself the magnificent Madame Maura.

So that that's fun little business. Doesn't... I mean, when it works, it's great. My heavens, what have we forgotten? What...

Nothing, nothing. What do you want to share that we haven't covered? That's about it, Karen. The only thing I have in personal life, which gives me so much joy,

well, I love travel all over the world. But the only other thing I wanted to add is I have, my son's grown, lives in Atlanta, married, children. That's OK.

But the love of my life is my Labrador. My Labrador Buddy, and he's eight years old and he's yellow and he's just love of my life. If anybody ever loves dogs, they're great. But Labradors are even greater, you know, unconditional love.

And then I have a tuxedo cat, all black, that I just adopted named Bugsy because he had a friend who was a real scrapper and the family had called him Capone for Al Capone. And Bugsy doesn't scrap as much, but he's got this black and

white. He's a tuxedo cat. So he has this tuxedo on, big whiskers, like something right out of Chicago.

And he's kind of sly. He'll do stuff in the sly. So I have Bugsy and Buddy, and so they're a joy in my life. Great.

And that's it. One question we ask everybody is what kind of advice would you give to somebody in 2014 if he or she came to you and said, what do you think about my wanting to be a teacher?

You want truthful advice? Exactly, no, what wisdom would you share with someone who is considering a career as a teacher? I've had thirty years' experience and, to be quite honest, as a

teacher, I'd say really love the children and think of the children first. I might be overstepping my bounds, I feel kind of, but I feel like I have to say this, but in my

career, what I've noticed with the city and the county, I don't think they're looking at the children first in the teaching environment or the classroom environment today. I can say specifically this year, last year, they're all

more into the political administrative doings. They're taking away from the teacher, today, the teaching. And so my advice to anybody going into teaching today is find a way to be creative, find a way to do other

than what they're insisting that you do. Now, let me just give an example with the city this year, they're starting a new reading program thinking that it's going to help the student.

It's called SFA, Success for All is what that means. And Monday through Friday, from 9:00 AM to 10:30, all teachers have to, they have taken away all textbooks, all reading textbooks, and the teacher for thirty minutes takes one book and

reads it. And then they'll answer the questions and they might read out loud, but it doesn't work for all 400 children, let alone 40 children.

And it's a very cookie cutter kind of thing. Again, I've just noticed this year, it's probably cost millions for the city, but it's not helping the child do basic reading.

So my advice to the new teacher would be after that... Oh, and then those high towering positions on North Avenue or whatever, and I'm being facetious when I say that, or in thinking that we're

dealing with eight, nine, ten-year-olds. Who can sit for an hour and a half? I can't even sit for an hour and a half without having to go to the bathroom or something non-stop without giving it a

break. So my advice to, and that's just an example for the new teacher would be OK, you have to do what you have to do because they're telling you you have to.

But find a way, maybe after lunch or whatever to get a storybook with a puppet, you know, or say let's, you know, you have free time for reading or have a little carpet and have them bring their picture book and trying to read maybe

one-on-one or using a puppet for comprehension skills or something that's creative, something that you're... What you've been taught and trained in. That's my advice.

Thank you and thank you for sharing your story with us. This has been delightful. Oh, thank you, thank you.