Judeen Hartge and her daughter, Molly, say the groups of students they teach are six to eight years apart in age but share the same desire to discover more about God’s role in their lives and to learn their purpose as part of God’s creation.
Throughout her 40 years as an educator, Judeen has taught third- and fourth-graders. She has spent the past 26 of those years at Gahanna St. Matthew School, where she has been the fourth-grade language arts and social studies teacher for six years.
“Fourth-graders usually aren’t at the point where they have specific questions,” Judeen said, “but they’re eager to explore and starting to grasp concepts like their individual significance and how God cares about every one of us, and in turn wants us to respect each other’s dignity as a human being and to treat each other with compassion.”
By the time they reach high school, “students are questioning all sorts of things,” said Molly, who teaches religion at Columbus Bishop Hartley High School, mainly to 10th-graders. “In looking at Catholic beliefs, they’ve gone beyond learning what the Church teaches and want to know why it holds certain beliefs. That’s why I enjoy teaching sophomores, because they want to have a discussion.
“Some are not Catholic or don’t believe in some of what the Church teaches, or say, ‘That’s not what I learned in grade school.’ I tell them, ‘That’s all right. I understand. Now I just want you to understand why the Church believes this.’”
Molly, a nickname for Margaret, is one of four children of Judeen and her husband, Frank, who has been business manager of Columbus St. Patrick Church for eight years after more than 30 years in shopping center management, primarily for the Jacobs Group in Cleveland, which at one time operated Columbus’ Eastland, Westland and Northland malls.
Frank, a Detroit native, and Judeen, who grew up in Milwaukee and has a degree in education from Mount Mary University there, met when both were working at the former Gimbels department store in Milwaukee. They have three other children – Father Michael Hartge, moderator of the Curia for the Diocese of Columbus, who is in residence at Columbus St. Peter Church; Frank Hartge IV, a physician with the U.S. Navy in San Diego; and Joseph, who works in New York City for an economic consulting firm.
Frank said that although his work with shopping malls was stressful, “I never would have been patient enough to be a teacher.”
“I really value my time at St. Matthew and (Columbus) St. Charles (Preparatory School) and the environment that Catholic schools provide. That had a positive effect on my journey to the priesthood,” Father Hartge said. “But it wasn’t until after I was ordained and serving as parochial vicar at St. Colman of Cloyne in Washington Court House that I had a greater appreciation for what teachers do.
“In my last year there, I took over teaching Parish School of Religion classes for high school students. After a couple of Sundays, I called my sister in desperation and said, ‘How do I teach and engage the kids?’ It’s one thing to know the material, but it’s another to try to teach a lesson plan to high-schoolers.”
Judeen said she always has enjoyed teaching the 8- and 9-year-old children who are in third and fourth grades “because they grow so much. You can see them starting to mature and to recognize the importance of school. This is a time when they’re ready to start learning about and to understand concepts such as the virtues and the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
“In my classes, I have students using the phrase ‘I can’ a great deal, such as ‘I can practice the virtue of patience’ or ‘I can learn to do long division.’
“I also use books which are appropriate for that age to challenge students and make them think about certain moral concepts. One is Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, in which a boy has to lie to save his dog – an animal who it turns out belongs to an alcoholic who abuses his dogs. It shows how everything is not black-and-white or as simple as it may seem at first.
“Another challenging and age-appropriate book is Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, about a Jewish family escaping from Denmark in World War II.
“I also emphasize the idea of the home as a domestic church and of my students absorbing what they learn in school and bringing it back to their families. Daily prayer, visits to the parish Adoration chapel, the rosary – students enjoy all these and take what they’ve learned to areas outside the classroom.”
“Some of my students want to ask questions but wonder if they’re appropriate for the classroom,” Molly Hartge said. “I tell them nothing’s inappropriate, and they can ask me anything.
“My bachelor’s degree was in theology, not education, so I have more of a theological background than most teachers. Sometimes students are surprised that I have answers to a particular question. There also are times when I’ll say, ‘I don’t know’ and look to the Catechism of the Catholic Church or ask a priest for advice.
“It’s great that Hartley, like all diocesan high schools, has religion classes every day because it allows me to build rapport with students and for them to know they can trust me,” she said.
Besides being a teacher, Molly, a graduate of St. Matthew School and Hartley, is coordinator of the school’s student service activities and director of its house system, in which students from ninth to 12th grades form groups known as houses that stay together all year, working with and competing against other houses in a variety of activities. She also has been an assistant coach in soccer and lacrosse.
Judeen said she became interested in educating others because her grandfather once told her, “Go be a teacher. It’s a good life,” and the comment stuck with her. Her father taught high school religious education classes for more than 20 years, and that also influenced her choice to teach in Catholic schools.
Molly’s route to the front of a classroom was a little more indirect. “I was influenced by my mother’s teaching background but thought I wanted to be a nurse,” she said. “I went to Xavier University in Cincinnati and realized after my first year there that I didn’t love hospitals or science that much. I switched my major to middle-childhood education but didn’t want to be a student-teacher.
“My faith was important to me, so I switched once more to a theology major, with the thought I might become a youth minister or teach religion in high school. After I graduated with that degree, none of the Catholic schools in Cincinnati wanted to hire someone without an education degree. I did become a youth minister at St. Veronica Church in Cincinnati, near the EastGate Mall, one of the malls my dad’s company managed.
“But I found that in Cincinnati, the high schools are more involved with youth ministry than the parishes, while in Columbus, there’s more parish involvement. I wanted to do more than I was able to in Cincinnati.
“Mom let me know of religious education positions open in Columbus, and there was one available at Hartley, but I thought I couldn’t get it because of not having an education degree. But (former principal) Mike Winters and (former assistant principal) Barbara Casson at Hartley said my theology degree allowed me to be a high school teacher, and I was hired to teach at the same school I attended.
“Teaching always appealed to me, and I was always comfortable in Catholic schools, so being at Hartley felt right.”
Molly eventually did receive a degree in teaching, earning a master’s in educational leadership from the University of Dayton in 2014.
“It’s just so rewarding to see students grow,” Judeen said. “It’s something that isn’t apparent from day to day, but you do realize it when looking back.
“One thing I especially remember is when one of my former third-graders told me when he was in eighth grade that my religion class prompted him to consider the priesthood. I don’t know whether he did or not, but it made me realize how influential a teacher can be.
“I’ve been at St. Matthew’s so long it’s become a second home to me, and now I’m teaching the children of children I once taught.
“I agree with Mom that seeing students grow and mature provides the greatest satisfaction for a teacher,” Molly said. “You don’t realize your impact right away, but I’ve received emails from former students thanking me, and knowing you had a lasting impact is very satisfying. You plant seeds, and you wonder if they’ll grow, and sometimes you just have to take the long view.”