Sue Harmon: Every Day is a Gift

By Julie D. Lillis -- When she was 32 and still nursing her youngest daughter, first grade teacher Sue Harmon felt a lump in her breast. She didn’t dismiss it. Three days later she had a definitive diagnosis: cancer, Stage II. It had already spread to two lymph nodes. She opted for a lumpectomy, and soon after surgery began the arduous road that so many veterans of chemotherapy know. She took off the rest of the school year, shuttling to and from chemo over a six-month period. She says she thought, “’Wait a minute. This was not on my to-do list.’”

But although that time was very difficult, Sue says she was stunned by the support of the Hackley community. “People were not afraid to make the gesture of letting me know that they were thinking of me [ranging from] parents, the students, the outpouring of letters, phone calls, emails, wishes, food…We could have fed every hungry person in the country...People wanted to help. I was amazed and overwhelmed by this community.”

After she finished her treatment, she “knew that I had to make a difference with this disease”.

She thought, “What am I going to do with everything that I learned?...And how do I give back to all of those people that did [so much] for me? How could I thank them? Saying thank you is never enough.” That’s when Sue decided to become active in the American Cancer Society (ACS), on whose Board of Advisors she now sits.

She is now the number-two fundraiser in the country, having raised a total of over $325,000 in a nine-year period. Last October alone she raised $78,000 at a walk to fight breast cancer (Making Strides). It was her ninth Making Strides walk, and “Team Sue Harmon” boasted over 120 walkers; Sue guesses that over half of them had Hackley connections. Honored on a boat cruise around Manhattan last April by the ACS, she has appeared in public service announcements on behalf of the organization, and has been interviewed by many news organizations about the work she is doing to raise money to fight breast cancer.

Sue is proud of the work she has done to raise money to fight cancer, and pleased with the awareness she has brought to the disease. She hopes that she can support women who are facing a cancer diagnosis, and inspire others to get mammograms on a timely basis.

“It’s like this crazy sorority that you get into, that you never wanted to be in, but you’re in it,” she says, furrowing her brow and looking intensely at me. “I want to make sure that I do everything possible in my life [so] that our children—the students here that I’ve taught, my children, your children, anybody’s children--don’t have to go through what I went through. It was not fun. So I’ll do whatever I can.”

In addition, she has helped countless women who face a breast cancer diagnosis. Sometimes that means “taking some phone calls from women who are newly diagnosed,” sometimes it means talking to perfect strangers or to women whom she knows right here on the Hilltop. I asked her how many women have talked to her at Hackley about having breast cancer. Three dozen, she says. Off campus, not affiliated with Hackley? About 200. “I’m a lucky one,” Sue says. “If my story can help anyone, that’s a good thing.”

Faculty and parents who know Sue have watched her efforts with admiration. Sue taught Diane Wheeler’s daughter, Joanne, some years ago. Diane commented recently, “Sue’s energy, passion, courage, and spirited drive have been inspirational to so many—but, most of all, to other breast cancer survivors and their families. She has taught them to be activists, teachers and passionate supporters of a cause that must succeed.”

Sue brings this same kind of passion and energy to her work in the classroom. Not long ago she and I talked about her years at Hackley while her young students were off at music class. Hired in 1993 as a Lower School intern, Sue moved swiftly into place as a first grade teacher, where she has stayed for 14 years. Next year she will shift to third grade—as with everything she does, she is characteristically enthusiastic, saying she is “thrilled.” And right now? “I just love first grade!” she says with a big smile and a flash of her light blue-green eyes. Why?

“It’s the most exciting year,” she says enthusiastically, leaning forward in her chair. “They come in…as children that are ready, but not quite able. And all of a sudden now in June our little guys are ready for second grade. They’re reading, they’re so much more fluent, they’re so much more independent, they’re learning about other people,…they’re empathetic to the children around them, they’re just different little beings. And they’re always eager to do…They’re just little sponges, they want more and more and more. It’s so easy for us. They want to learn.”

“Mrs. Harmon always has a way of making everybody feel smart,” says Alex Satty ‘06, who student taught with her one year. “I absolutely love Mrs. Harmon.”

Sue’s former students agree. “Mrs. Harmon has always remained my ‘favorite teacher’ at Hackley,” Sydney Sanchez ‘06 told me last year in an email. “She was always smiling, always kind. I remember listening to her read The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe during storytime. I remember her dressing up for Halloween and for ‘The Great Kapok Tree,’ our play in which I was the narrating butterfly. I remember her teaching us how to express greater/lesser numbers. I still refer back to ‘Allie the Alligator’ (which was [about the greater than sign]) when I’m confused…I can still count on Mrs. Harmon for a warm hug whenever I see her, even after twelve years.”

This warmth extends to all Sue does. She enjoys following her young charges from 1st through 12th grades, a benefit of a K-12 school like Hackley. “I keep in touch with my students. I really don’t let them go,” she laughs. “I’m in touch with their families. I love to see them on the Quad,” she says. As she says, “these kids become part of you.”

She loves to see the work of her former students. “I want to see how they are developing. I want to see how their math skills have taken off, I want to see how that little writer in first grade is writing at the Upper School level. I love going to art shows and seeing [artwork of former students and thinking], ‘Wow. That kid was such a great drawer in first grade, and look at [her] now. AP Art. Isn’t that amazing?’”

Or she likes to see how an ability to explain things to one’s 1st grade classmates might translate later on to student teaching as an Upper Schooler—and maybe a possible career choice. “What a thrill to have students that I taught that I thought, “Ooo, wow, that person would be a great teacher,’ and now they’re actually coming back [to the Lower School] as a student teacher. It gives me the chills. It’s great.”

Sue likes to work in partnership with parents, recognizing that “we as teachers and we as parents are all here for the common goal: for educating these children, and having their children rise to their potential and meet their potential. We’re all on the same page. Sometimes it’s harder for some parents to realize that, maybe if you have some constructive criticism about their child, maybe that’s a little bit difficult to hear; but I think once they realize why we’re all here—that we’re all here for the common goal for their child—the partnership works. It’s a beautiful thing when that happens. ‘Cause we are here for the child. That’s why we get into education: for the children.”

She comes from a family of teachers, where education “kind of runs in the blood.” Her grandmother, long retired, was a teacher; her mother, now a librarian, had been a teacher; her sister is a teacher. As a little girl—in fourth grade—Sue knew she wanted to be a teacher. Inspired by gifted teachers, she pinpointed her career choice then and there. “It was teachers who really secured in me my desire—even as a young fourth grader,” she says. “I loved being a student, and imagined, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be cool to be a teacher?’” I had really great teachers. And I really think that that motivated me to kind of look at my life a little bit differently.” She has told her fourth grade teachers this, “that they really helped shape my future.” They were, as one might imagine, “amazed.”

“I love my job!” she exclaims. “I love working with children. I love the exchange. I love to see the light bulb go on every day—and it goes on every day in a different student or maybe all the students. There really isn’t a day that I don’t go home and feel proud of these little guys.” She also loves the “ever-changing” nature of the job, she says—the curriculum is never static from year to year, or even day to day. “We have different students, different curriculum, every day is different—and that’s exciting,” she says with a big smile. “It is exciting when the lesson plan just has to be shelved and you go with something.” She enjoys the flexibility of every day in the classroom, bending instead to the needs of the kids.

Music figures large in her life, and she calls it one of her “biggest passions.” She loves Bob Marley best of all—even emailing me the lyrics to one reggae song--but is eclectic in her choice of music. She and her family see live music about twice a month, often going together, including the girls, who are now ages 12 (Kathryn) and 9 (Molly).

She brings her love of music to the classroom. Teasingly called “DJ Suzy Sue” by her students, says Alex Satty, Sue played “music for the kids during snack time or after they had finished an activity. They absolutely loved listening to the music”.

Another passion is hunting for sea shells and sea glass, which—like gardening and music—is a hobby Sue’s family practices together. (Sea glass is glass that the sea has pounded smooth over many years. It is often very old and aficionados can tell its origins.) Her grandfather showed her how to do it. “He taught us that you have to be very keen in looking at the rocks versus the seaweed versus the shells,” she says. “And every now and then you get this little glimmer. He taught us how to comb the beach.” Sue is so good at hunting for sea glass that she can tell the age of it, and enjoys the “story” behind each piece.

Suddenly we hear the sound of shoes slapping against the floor. First graders stream into the classroom, and make a beeline for Sue. Her trademark energy and enthusiasm bubble over as she greets her students. It is time to let her do her job. “Come back and visit anytime,” she says to me, and I know she means it. As I leave, I remember what she said earlier: “Every day is a gift.”

© 2007 Hackley School. All rights reserved.

To read alumni comments regarding this article, or to write your own, click here:
http://www.hackleyschool.org/about/news/default.asp?newsid=400682