Joyce Diehle: Room 4 No More

This is another in a series of stories on employees of the Bensalem School District who were hired in the 1970s and are resigning this year.

Come September, Room 4 at Benjamin Rush Elementary School will have its first new adult tenant in 38 years.

“I tell my husband I don't know what it will be like the day I walk out of here and think 'Who will be in my room?'” said Joyce Diehle, who will do just that this week.

After student teaching at the old Cornwells Elementary School, Diehle was hired by the local district in 1972 as a teacher at Samuel K. Faust Elementary School. After one year there, her husband got a job transfer that led them to Lancaster. They returned just a year later and she was re-hired by Bensalem as a first-grade teacher at Rush. She's been there – in that role and that same room – ever since.

How did that happen?

“I love first grade and it just worked out. I never had to leave my room,” she said.

What's so special about teaching first grade?

“I love to teach reading I could teach reading all day. If you like to teach reading, this is the year to be in,” she said. “And I just love the age. They are very enthusiastic learners in first grade.”

That doesn't mean her young students didn't change over the years.

“When I started, children were not expected to have the skills that they do now,” she said. “We started with beginning sounds. … Now they're coming in much more advanced and the curriculum is much more advanced.”

Diehle, 60, said she also loved her long tenure at Rush – only about a mile away from her home in Ivyland – because it is a “very diverse school.” And she's enjoyed being able to blend her career with her love of music. She has fond memories of annual Christmas musicals, playing piano at myriad school functions and taking students to the Academy of Music.

All that said, it's not surprising her decision to retire was difficult.

“I had some slight health problems last year I just think it's a good time to go but it's been very bittersweet. I've been teary a lot,” she said.

Diehle says she is looking forward to the flexibility that comes with retirement.

“We could go to an island in February, which I never could do,” she said. “ And I can spend more time with my parents and other family members.”

But her retirement is such a tough change for Diehle, that some students will still see her next year. Just not nearly as often and not necessarily in Room 4.

“I'm going to come back and substitute a few weeks,” she said. “I'm weaning myself away slowly. That's my little safety net.”

“I lived my dream,” added the mother of two daughters. “I just liked everything about it.”