By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
One by one, each smiling kindergartner walking down a hall of Johnson Park School said, “Hello Mr. Fletcher,” as they passed the 65-year-old first-grade teacher.
Lamont Fletcher, who is retiring this month after teaching in Princeton schools for 39 years, said loving what he does and giving all his students his full attention has allowed him to thrive in the classroom for all these years.
”I like kids,” the former Princeton High School track and field coach said. “I like to interchange with them. Part of having fun is getting to meet people. When students look happy, I ask them to tell me about why they’re so happy and when students look sad I ask them to tell me what’s wrong.”
He added, “Kids at this age, they like to demonstrate what they can do. By giving them 15 minutes, you get 30 minutes of their time.”
For all but two years of his teaching career, Mr. Fletcher has been able to focus on children in kindergarten through second grade. The man who believes that God made him to be a teacher said working with students in these grades enables him to better carry out his mission as a teacher, because these younger students are still impressionable.
”We’re responsible for molding lives. My job is not only to teach them but to be a role model for them, to show them forgiveness,” Mr. Fletcher said. “First-graders are still sweet and not tainted by society. They’re the best that a human can be.”
Teaching in Princeton is another aspect of Mr. Fletcher’s job that he loves.
Since he was born, raised and educated in the community, Princeton is the place Mr. Fletcher calls home. He now resides in Pennington.
He’s also lived through a lot of changes in the schools, including desegregation, overcrowding caused by increased development in nearby towns that once were sending districts to Princeton, and later shrinking enrollment after high schools were built in those sending districts, including Montgomery, West Windsor and Lawrence.
Mr. Fletcher also had the pleasure of teaching the children of some of his former students like Asianna Merrill, who is in his first-grade class.
Retiring is difficult for someone who has been a teacher for so long and the obvious adoration students have for him hasn’t made it any easier.
When Mr. Fletcher asked his first-grade class, in how many days would he be leaving school, Grace Sheppard responded, “In 14,002 days, because we don’t want you to leave.”
The other students said “11 days,” but that they were sad to see him go.
Although June 18 will be his last day on the job, it will not be the end of Mr. Fletcher’s work as a teacher. As a deacon at the First Baptist Church of Princeton, Mr. Fletcher said he will continue teaching vacation Bible school for adults and that he may teach education to college students and volunteer to read to pre-school children and people in nursing homes.
