Her Story
Renee Genbauffe O’Leary earned her B.S. from Millersville State College in 1950 and began a teaching career that would span more than four decades — sixth grade in the Lampeter/Strasburg School District, then kindergarten at Erie County Day School and West Hempfield School District in Pennsylvania, followed by twenty-four years teaching kindergarten in the Wilmington Public Schools. In 1980 she joined the Colonial School District’s Wilmington Manor Elementary School, where she taught kindergarten for the next thirteen years, continuing to add credits through the Delaware Teacher Center and Department of Public Instruction along the way.
She combined an early-childhood classroom with a passion for science, developing “Science in a Sandwich Bag,” a hands-on program introducing kindergartners to concepts like the five senses, shapes, water, air, and forms of matter, with all the materials for simple experiments packed into a plastic bag a child could take home to redo with their parents. She refined the program into “Linking Home and School with P.A.S.S.” (Portable, Affordable, Simple Science) and signed a 1992 contract with Alpha Publishing Company to publish it. In 1993 she was named among the nation’s top 20 K-12 science teachers by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was a National Teachers Hall of Fame induction finalist that same year, returning in 1994 to be selected.
Her honors accumulated across a remarkable career: 1982 Delaware Teacher of the Year, a 1990 DuPont Mini-Grant for her science program, the 1991 Christa McAuliffe Fellowship Award, the 1991 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching, the 1992 SUPERSTAR! in Education Award from the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, and the 1993 State Farm “Good Neighbor” Award. She used the money from these awards to buy computers for her school’s kindergarten classrooms and fund a weekend science retreat for her school’s entire professional staff. A licensed pilot since 1983, she was a member of the Delaware Chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an organization of licensed women pilots, and continued flying alongside her forty-two and a half years in the classroom.
Beyond the Classroom
O’Leary traveled the country and beyond sharing her science program — conducting workshops for the Delaware Teacher Center, the National Science Teachers Association in Little Rock, Tulsa, Atlantic City, and Kansas City, the New Jersey Council of Elementary Science, and an international NSTA conference in Mexico, where in 1993 she and her husband traveled to celebrate their 41st wedding anniversary while she taught her methods to Mexican teachers. She served on the policy board of the Delaware Teacher Center, the Delaware State Science Advisory Board, the Delaware Academy of Science board, and as Vice President of the Elementary Division of the Delaware Science Alliance, where she helped establish the state’s Mathematics, Science and Technology Resource Center.
For over thirty years she was an active member of Newark’s Chapel Street Players community theater, serving on its board of directors, conducting free acting workshops for its Children’s Program, and appearing in every one of the group’s annual fundraisers — 75 community theater productions in all by 1993. She founded and chaired the Delaware Association for the Blind’s Braille Auto Rally beginning in 1970, founded the Lofland Memorial Auto Sprint benefiting the American Cancer Society, and founded and chaired the “Have A Heart” Auto Rally for the Delaware Heart Association. She was active for years in the Brandywiners musical organization and the Delaware Theatre Association, served as PTA Vice President and Public Relations Chair at her school, and was deeply involved at Kingswood United Methodist Church, where she co-founded and taught “Kingswood Kids,” a Sunday worship service for children in grades 1–4, and sang in the senior choir.
Philosophy Into Practice
Philosophy Into Practice
O’Leary traced her calling to a painful first-grade experience: born with a birth injury and an allergic skin condition, she was treated as an “ugly duckling” by classmates and kept at a distance by her teacher. At six years old she made a decision that would shape her entire life — to become the most gentle, loving, and caring teacher she could possibly be, so that no child in her classroom would ever suffer as she had. A poem she memorized in eighth grade, Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Psalm of Life,” became part of her philosophy of teaching, and she wove its imagery of “footprints on the sands of time” into a poem of her own, “Welcome to Kindergarten,” which she read to her incoming students and their families every year.
Her approach was to swiftly convince each child that her classroom was a place where they would participate eagerly, feel proud of their work, feel they belonged, and receive “a bundle of love from their teacher.” She populated her room with an elf named Mr. Music, a magic wand, a crystal ball, and a “mirror-faced doll” — devices she used across four decades to make learning what she called, echoing Plato, “a kind of amusement.” A bout with throat cancer in 1969 deepened her belief that if you truly believe in yourself, work hard, and make love a big part of your life, impossible dreams can come true — and that her goal was to give her students a start toward their own impossible dreams.
“And when our time together comes to an end, I hope I’ll be more than ‘teacher’; you’ll also call me ‘friend.’ — Your kindergarten teacher and friend, Mrs. O’Leary”— from her poem “Welcome to Kindergarten,” in her essay “In the Classroom”
In Her Own Words
“The words life and teaching are synonymous to me for teaching is my life. Nothing brings me greater joy than mastering something and then teaching it to someone else… Helping others to learn is my life’s goal.”— from her essay, “Professional Biography”
“My goal is to instill in each child the desire to become the best human being he or she can possibly be. I want them to find something in themselves they can love and, every day, do something they can be proud of. Building pride is a major objective.”— from her essay, “Philosophy of Teaching”
“I am a firm believer that teaching and life should be lived to the fullest, filled with learning and laughter and brimming with love for the world around you… Teachers must go beyond the four walls of a school building to truly experience life and learning.”— from her essay, “Outside the Classroom”
What Others Said
“Mrs. O’Leary is a well known kindergarten teacher within the state of Delaware with thirty-eight years of service to children. The list of her accomplishments is both long and distinguished… In conclusion, Renee O’Leary is a vibrant, exciting professional who has the skills to be an outstanding spokesperson for all teachers.”— David C. Campbell, Ed.D., Superintendent, and James M. Neel, Principal, Colonial School District
“When most teachers reach her level of experience, they are thinking of slowing down and retiring. Not so with Mrs. O’Leary. I have witnessed a continued, yet renewed surge in her professionalism! She’s not getting older, she’s getting better!”— Cynthia S. Hobson, Colleague and Parent
“It is hard for me to imagine a candidate for the National Teachers Hall of Fame who has supported her community more enthusiastically than Renee O’Leary.”— Ernest S. Sutton, President, Chapel Street Players
“Mrs. O’Leary has not only shown me the qualities which are needed to become a great teacher: enthusiasm, motivation, desire, and a love for children; but also qualities which make a wonderful friend… One day I hope to become half the teacher Mrs. O’Leary is and a tenth of what she is as an individual.”— Jennifer L. Asbury, Student Teacher
“Mrs. O’Leary realized my true potential of being a teacher, and encouraged me to enter college… I can happily say that 4 years later I graduated second in my class, and am now co-working as a teacher with Renee.”— Michelle D. Jordan, Kindergarten Teacher and Former Playground Aide