Her Story
Janice Gould describes herself the way an artist would: warm skin tones for the caring spirit of a teacher, smile lines from moments of encouragement and laughter, and rapid brush strokes to reflect “a typical day of perpetual motion and keeping a watchful eye on students’ progress.” Her childhood inspiration was her father, a family doctor who opened the first integrated medical clinic and forty-bed hospital in his community. She worked in that hospital in high school, where she watched his compassion and respect for people of all races, and at his funeral families of his patients came with stories of his devoted care. She calls it a humanitarian philosophy that she “respected and adopted.”
She studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Art Institute of Chicago and Roosevelt University, where she earned her B.A. in art in 1964, then returned to school after raising two sons to earn her teaching certification in 1975. During her student teaching she visited Lawrence Hall, a residential and therapeutic day school for abused, neglected and abandoned children. The art teacher there was retiring and suggested she apply. She did, and she has taught there ever since, building a year-round art program for elementary, middle and high school students with severe behavioral and emotional disorders. Later she took computer graphics classes at Northwestern University and taught an evening art class for the Deerfield/Highland Park alternative high school program.
Her honors include Lawrence Hall’s Teacher of the Year (1990), one of ten finalists for Illinois Teacher of the Year (1991), the Kohl International Teaching Award (1992), the Golden Apple Teaching Award (1993), and Exceptional Teachers Award and Honorary Chairperson for the 41st Annual Exceptional Children’s Week (2001). She was one of five finalists for the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 2001, and her nominator, Jean Damisch, wrote that she has known Gould “for nearly 20 years through the Kohl Academy of Outstanding Educators and other Education projects.”
Beyond the Classroom
Because her students find it hard to take part in traditional community activities, Gould brings the community’s events, contests and museums to them. In the summer of 1999, when Chicago’s “Cows on Parade” put some 300 fiberglass cows on the city’s streets, the Episcopal Diocese asked her students to paint one. They had five days to do what professional artists did in a month, and they worked from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. every day to create the “Angel Cow,” with wings and gown sculpted from auto-body repair material and a halo that began as a hollowed-out frisbee. The cow was blessed by the Bishop during its installation. Her students also visit the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art each year, and take part in an annual trip to the International Exhibition of Sculpture, Objects and Functional Art.
For years she has entered student work in contests, and the results run long: the City of Chicago’s vehicle sticker design contest, where her students placed second or third six years in a row before one of them took first place in 2001, with the design printed on some 1.5 million city vehicle stickers for 2002; the Congressional Arts Competition for the Fifth District, which sent a student’s work to the U.S. Capitol for a year; and contests run by the Chicago Teachers’ Union, the Golden Apple Foundation, the National Center for Learning Disabilities and Pentel’s international children’s art exhibition. In 1995 she also started a permanent children’s art collection for the Illinois State Board of Education, which now holds dozens of framed pieces by Lawrence Hall students, and she has built a permanent student art collection of more than 175 pieces on the agency’s own campuses.
At home in Northbrook, she has been elected president of the 157-home Williamsburg Square Homeowners Association every year since 1981, helped negotiate eight acres of land for a local park she designed, and served on her district’s PTA board and the village caucus committee.
Philosophy Into Practice
“As children, we were proud when a parent would hang our drawings on their refrigerator door,” Gould writes, “However, many of my students do not have a parent to give this acknowledgment of achievement.” Her answer has been to create other “refrigerator doors”: holiday and note cards designed by students and sold by the thousands (eighty-eight designs so far), a school calendar of students’ monthly art, and a yearbook she began photographing in 1976 as the students’ “scrapbook of memories.” A student can be the artist, run the printing press, and package and ship the cards, so that each sees a small business from conception to sales. When one student with profound learning disabilities redrew a detailed elephant from feet to head in near-perfect scale, she placed him in her accelerated class and built an individual curriculum with him, which grew into college-level anatomy drawings.
“The incentive to learn begins the moment they open my classroom door.”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
“Experiencing success gives them hope for their future. It can change their self image from one of incompetence to competence.”— from her essay, “In the Classroom”
In Her Own Words
“My greatest reward comes when I watch them looking at their artwork on public display and sharing that moment of excitement with a friend.”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
“Sometimes, I even get a special hug, which is their way of saying….. ‘You are a part of my life.'”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
“These children have already experienced enough failure, which has given them a hopeless view of their future. Often, art can provide a new direction for their lives.”— from her essay, “Getting to Know You”
“Effective educators develop methods to insure that all children have a ‘fighting chance’ to succeed.”— from her essay, “Educational Issues”
“Often, the most important things we give these young people are not remembered by us, but are significant to them.”— from her essay, “Educational Issues”
What Others Said
“She is a master teacher who inspires children to learn. She guides and empowers each of her students to participate in their education — to make it meaningful and rewarding.”— Shari Demitrowicz, Principal, Therapeutic Day School, Lawrence Hall Youth Services
“Jan exemplifies what an educator should be. She is most definitely a positive role model for others.”— Mary H. Hollie, Chief Executive Officer, Lawrence Hall Youth Services
“She was the first teacher in the private, therapeutic treatment arena awarded Illinois’ Golden Apple award.”— Margery Doss, Director, Professional Development, Lawrence Hall Youth Services
“Janice Gould is an extraordinary educator who helps her students believe that they can achieve and succeed.”— Dolores Kohl, President, Dolores Kohl Education Foundation
“Janice rescues kids. She believes in them, helps them find their talents, opens the world to them and presents them to the world. If anyone deserves your prestigious honor, Janice Gould does.”— Penny A. Lundquist, Director, Golden Apple Academy
“Mrs. Gould has the gift to bring out the best in her students. Whether she knows it or not she is a second mom to her students.”— Cynthia L. Hubbard, parent of a student
“Ms. Gould is very committed and dedicated to her art students and is a very caring person.”— Eddie Mae Sails, home parent in an agency residential unit