Nancy Fulton Ingle, The Accidental Teacher

Nancy Fulton Ingle

With no intention of teaching or ever doing anything useful, I majored in Modern Foreign Languages/Humanities at K State.  As I took Latin, Spanish and French at East from some wonderful teachers, this major seemed the logical thing to do.  Following my Navy fiancee to Jacksonville, FL, I was told they were looking for warm bodies to staff the local schools and received two job offers before I got back home from filling out the paperwork. 

After I worked for three years on a Temporary Certificate and did nothing to make it permanent, my principal put me on to a U. S. Department of Education title VI program at the University of Florida to train Florida teachers and give them a Masters Degree, all while paying our salaries and tuition.  In just one year, I had that degree, a summer in Mexico City, and a 20-year certificate. 

I lolled around for a number of years, adopted two children, did volunteer work, and then was asked to teach at a small college-prep school in Orange Park, Florida. Several years later, we moved to central Florida where I finally settled at Rockledge High School and managed to grift three more stays abroad in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Spain – paid for by you and yours – and even managed to earn recertification credit with summer months of dancing the tango in Buenos Aires. I paid for the tango myself.

Once retired, I got serious about travel  and have been to India, China, South Africa, Cuba,  Alaska, Canada, England, Greece, and several other European countries. I have had a wonderful life.

So, Dad, turns out Foreign Languages/Humanities wasn’t such a useless major after all!

 

8 Comments
  1. glenna park 3 years ago

    That last line was so familiar. My dad wanted me to think about a paying career, too!
    You exhibited the free-flow of a. creative lifestyle which allowed you to take advantage of the opportunities surrounding you. That sense of free-flow must have fed your teaching as a very accomplished career.

    • Nancy Fulton Ingle 3 years ago

      My H.S. students cannot believe it when I tell them that I was sent to college “to find a husband.” In spite of having two, I still supported myself and two children. What do Dads know?

  2. gene c 3 years ago

    Doesn’t seem like that much of a grift or racket, and I’m sure your style came thru in class. Youngsters were lucky to have had your, um, perspective. Even if you paid, the tango was a real bonus. Great job, I think, on this story, which is consistent with the personality I recall from East — including the tango….

    • Nancy Fulton Ingle 3 years ago

      Hi Gene,

      I didn’t know tango existed when I was at East but it saved my sanity in my fifties and beyond.

  3. Larry Statham 3 years ago

    Delighted to read your story of finding joy in teaching and travel. I’m sure all your students got the benefit of your talents while you earned some fun travel.

    Argentine tango is my favorite dance to watch. None other compares to its rhythm and complex moves. Lucky lucky lady.

    • Nancy Fulton Ingle 3 years ago

      The majority of the men are engineers and they love the binary thinking that is required to move their partner while they are doing other steps. It is never too late to learn, Larry. BTW what you see on TV is not what I do. Google this – Lo de Celia tango – to see where and what I danced.

  4. Skip Granger 3 years ago

    Nancy, I miss your jokes!

  5. Nancy Fulton Ingle 3 years ago

    Sorry, Skip. Your politics were a real turn-off.

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