If you spend any time in the Learning Resources office of Teresa Edwards, you quickly learn that she is the fulcrum of the Middle School: students pop in to ask for advice and help, colleagues enter from every direction to check in with her, and Chrissy McConaughy, the Middle School Math Chair who teaches in the classroom across the hallway, can’t help but eagerly wave at her. “For 19 years, I could sit at my desk and look at her sitting in her chair, or yell at her across the hall,” McConaughy says, already sad about the prospect of not seeing her every day.

Edwards is a Middle School institution: caring, stalwart, uncensored. So why is she retiring after 36 years at Latin? She chuckles. “All these kids who I had as students in Middle School now have kids who are students in Middle School,” she says. “It’s time for me to go.”

You’ve been at Charlotte Latin since 1989.

I didn’t realize how big the school was going to get. When I started, this hallway was the entire Middle School: it ended in the foyer. There might have been a couple of classes over in the leadership building.

What do you enjoy about your job?

Well, of course you love seeing the kids succeed. A lot of kids need pushing, but then they actually start to believe that they can do the work and do it well. There’s a lot of development between sixth grade and eighth grade, but we tell parents that some kids may not become great students until tenth grade.

What are the challenges of this age group?

The big thing I had to learn was flexibility. Every day is different. You have these kids and you think, “Okay, this is what I’m going to do when they come in.” But if they come in and they’re upset about something, you’ve got to listen, or you won’t get anywhere. In Middle School, the social piece and the emotional piece are just as big as the academic piece. But I wouldn’t want to teach any other grade.

Do you know what you’re going to do with your time once you’re gone?

I have no plans. I live half a mile from here, so I’ll probably walk down here every day. I’m a little nervous about it, because I’ve been on a school schedule since I was five. I do have a lot of family responsibilities now. My 92-year-old aunt, my mom’s baby sister, is in Florida, and I have total care for her.

Tell us about something you’re good at outside of school.

I can cook. I’ve done a lot of cooking for people here who needed help: somebody who just had a baby, or someone who had a sick husband or sick child. The essence of the Middle School is that we all try to take care of each other.

We don’t want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like what you value about Latin is the community.

Those are good words. When I’ve had difficult times, this place is why I made it through. All these guys in the Middle School who were coaches, there was a sensitivity in these men — I never ever viewed them as anything but the greatest guys in the world. They showed up for me more than once.

These offices were dedicated in your name in 2022. 

That was a huge surprise. I thought I was covering Jeff Wolfe’s classroom, and [Director of Safety and Security] Dale Greene comes down and starts saying, “You need to get down here right now.” I thought Dale was dragging me in here to tell me something else I had done wrong. I’ve lost more ID tags than anybody in the entire school.

How did your portrait end up in Mr. Wolfe’s classroom?

Jeff’s helped me out quite a bit over the years. It had to be, gosh, 2010 — he was helping me move to another house and when he was in my attic, he saw this portrait that somebody did of me when I was 23 or 24. I had a neighbor who was an artist; I remember that I had just cut off all my hair. I said, “Well, this is ridiculous — it doesn’t look like me at all.” So it had always been in the attic, but Jeff took it without telling me and he had maintenance hang it on his wall. I went in there and said, “Oh no! That doesn’t even look like me.” He didn’t care. It will probably stay there until this building’s torn down.

What advice would you give parents?

Don’t micromanage your children. They’ll be okay. Especially the kids with attention issues: some of the most successful adults had issues with attention and hyperactivity.

And what advice would you give your Middle School colleagues?

(laughs) It doesn’t matter — they’re not going to listen to a thing I say.