Jayne Vahle was a barely a teen ager the first time she really started believing in public education.
As a student in Bartlesville, Okla., her father received Social Security benefits for a disability, while her mother, an immigrant from Scotland, cleaned homes and worked at Wal-Mart to support her family.
“I was very poor growing up,” said Vahle, now a 27-year-old English teacher at Bear Creek High School in Lakewood who can still remember receiving food stamps as a child.
But at Bartlesville High School, where the wealthiest students mixed with the poorest, her socio- economic status didn’t matter. When it came to getting a solid education, she said: “I got what they (the rich kids) got and that made the difference for me.”
That education lead to a scholarship to attend the University of Denver, a passion for teaching young people – and national recognition for her work as a teacher.
In a surprise ceremony at school Friday, Vahle was stunned to learn she was one of two Colorado teachers to receive a National Educator Award, along with a hefty $25,000 check, from the Milken Family Foundation.
The other teacher was Mark Schreiber at Frontier Academy in Greeley, according to the foundation’s website.
The foundation rewards elementary and secondary school teachers in 48 states and the District of Columbia who demonstrate high-quality teaching skills.
Vahle, who teaches literature and English to advanced students, as well as reading to struggling students, said she was humbled by the prize.
“I work in a school where there are tremendous teachers,” she said. “These teachers have perfected their craft.”
She credited her public school education for her success: “In seventh or eighth grade, I realized school was something I had to be successful in” to have a better life.
Vahle, who began teaching in the Englewood School District when she was 21, said she initially wasn’t sure she was cut out for the job.
Vahle said she struggled with seeing the problems that students cope with every day: having parents who fight, raising their siblings or being homeless.
“When you discover that information, you can’t help but take that home with you,” she said.
In 2001, she switched to teaching college students, only to return to a public high school two years later.
“It was much more of a passion,” Vahle said of teaching at a high school.
“I love the energy of high school students. I love that they can be academic and silly at the same time.”
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-820-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
