"The Dignity They Deserve"

Every spring, various civic and educational groups look over the nation's classrooms and select some man or woman to be their Teacher of the Year. Last week in Los Angeles, such an honor went to a woman who has not taught for a decade. But the choice was not as strange as it might seem. To thousands of teachers across the U.S., Ethel Percy Andrus, 69, could claim the title any year.

Ethel Andrus' fame really began after her retirement. A sprightly, auburn-haired Ph.D. (University of Southern California), she began teaching in 1911, for 28 years served as principal of the Lincoln High School in Los Angeles. But in spite of all that time in service, her retirement pay in 1944 turned out to be a meager $60 a month. Though she had some money of her own, Ethel Andrus began to wonder how the rest of the nation's 140,000 retired teachers were able to make out.

The Spokesman. Learning that there was no nationwide organization that could speak for retired teachers, she decided to become their spokesman herself. She traveled, all over the state and toured the country, by 1947 had lined up enough members to start the National Retired Teachers Association. Its mission: "To put dignity back into the life of the penniless former teacher."

Since then, Ethel Andrus has set up branch organizations in 43 states. She crosses the country at least once every two months, and on a slim annual budget of $20,000 manages to turn out dozens of pamphlets and to publish a quarterly. She has persuaded thousands of ex-teachers to take up jobs as tutors, counselors, or consultants to children's courts. She and her 20,000 members have also lobbied for bills to enable ex-teachers to work as substitutes, have so far succeeded in Michigan, Indiana and New York. In Omaha, the N.R.T.A. runs a White Elephant Shop that not only employs ex-teachers, but is plowing the profits into a retired teacher's home with its profits.

The Climb. After seven years, Ethel Andrus can claim credit for other accomplishments. Largely through the efforts of the N.R.T.A., California has raised its benefits from $60-odd a month to $170; Alabama's are up from $28 to $43; New York's from $90 to $176, and Indiana's are up a flat 10%. All in all, the national average has climbed slowly but steadily-from $885 a year in 1947 to $1,192.

Ethel Andrus still works nearly 16 hours a day. Eventually, she hopes to persuade Congress to increase tax exemptions for retired people, is working on a plan to build a chain of 15 homes for retired teachers. Most important of all, she still dreams of the day when the word "retirement" will have lost its terrors. "As it is," says she, "when you leave a job, they often just give you a gold watch, and all you can do is look at it and count the hours until you die. Yet think of all the grand things we can do that youth can't. Think of all the things we already have done. Someday, the retired teachers in this country will have the dignity they deserve."

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