Schools

Tardif, Times Two: Teens Rule

Jeanette Tardif has been teaching English at Bucksport High School since 1969. The same goes for her husband, Philip Tardif. PHOTO BY JOHN HUBBARD

It’s the rare student who passes through Bucksport High School without an English course taught by a Tardif.

If the student didn’t have Jeanette Tardif, then perhaps the English teacher was Philip Tardif, her husband.

Even better: If the student didn’t encounter either Tardif, then surely a parent or cousin did.

The Tardifs are Bucksport High School’s longest-serving teachers. They finish up 33 years in the English department next month.  These years, Philip Tardif is the department chair, and Jeanette Tardif teaches mostly British and world literature.

They started their careers together at the school in September 1969.

Literally thousands of Bucksport’s teen-agers have passed under the eyes of this pair at school. They also make their home in Bucksport.

Not surprisingly, Jeanette Tardif thinks the world of teen-agers.

“They are wonderful people,” Tardif said. “Some of them have difficulties getting through high school, with so much going on in their lives. And for some of them, academics and studying are quite low on their scale of priorities.

“But it’s very exciting when you encounter these students who have struggled, maybe 10 years later. They come back to town with a family and want you to meet their children. Or else they have found their niche in the career world.

“It pleases me to know that maybe I had just a little something to do with their lives many years earlier. Maybe I had a bit to do with who they are today.”

That’s the kind of influence that is earned. It also comes from having grown up in Bucksport herself.

“Many people told me when I started teaching that I might regret teaching in the town where I grew up,” she said. “But that has turned out to be one of the most wonderful parts of my career.

“I do know family histories, because I went to school with the parents of so many students that I have taught. And now I am teaching the children of those I taught years ago.

“It has been an unbelievable advantage being a lifelong member of this community.”

Tardif is proud to be known locally as the daughter of Alda Small, who now lives at the Penobscot Nursing Home.

“She always had a cause,” Tardif said. “She could do 19 things at once and take care of half of Bucksport at the same time.

“Mother taught me and my brother, Keith Small, that we were never to go to bed without having done something that day to brighten the life of someone else.

“She lives that way. To me, that is a miraculous life philosophy.”

During her Bucksport years, Small volunteered for 16 years in the kitchen at Miles Lane School for Bucksport’s kindergartners through third-graders. They called her Nana.

Six or seven years ago, Small was nominated for the state’s Jefferson Award, which honors outstanding volunteers. She didn’t win, but that didn’t stop the Miles Lane students from having their own “Nana Day” in honor of her.

Back at the high school, beyond the classroom, the Tardifs have been involved in many other activities. One of Jeanette’s first involvements, starting in 1970, was directing the school’s one-act plays. That role lasted 14 years.

Also among the Tardifs’ accomplishments, together, were the 13 years they were co-advisors for the Students Against Drunk Driving group. For five years in the ’80s, Phil Tardif was the school’s cross country coach and Jeanette Tardif joined him at all the meets. Phil Tardif also coached the debate team for nine years, with an assist from Jeanette.

For more than 20 years, Jeanette has served on the advisory board for Bucksport Adult Education. For 10 of those years, Philip has taught the GED portion of the adult education program.

Also for the last 10 years, Tardif has handled all the non-sports publicity for Bucksport High School.

Like everything else they have done together, school-related, the Tardifs will doubtless retire together. That decision is still another two or four years out, though.

“I can’t imagine either one of us completely pulling away from teenagers,” Jeanette Tardif said. “I do think that teenagers are one of the world’s best inventions.”