No Stopping This Volunteer Teacher

As mother and grandmother, Canoga Park resident Agnes Daly Hector, 79, has seven children and five grandchildren. As teacher, Hector estimates she has taught reading, math, physical education and dancing to more than 3,000 children in her 67-year career.

But she is still not thinking about retiring. Hector volunteers to teach at the Capistrano Avenue elementary school without pay.

It was a crush on a physical education teacher that made Hector decide to pursue a teaching career when she was 13. She received her teaching credentials at Northwestern University near Chicago. But after she moved to Southern California 37 years ago, she did not obtain a California credential to teach in the public schools. So Hector has given private lessons and taught at private and religious schools. As a senior volunteer she can teach at the Capistrano Avenue school.

“She is a very dedicated teacher. She gives individual attention to children and she is their hero,” says Capistrano Principal Frank Specchierla. “She always had a smile and she would never miss a day even if it was raining.”

Hector has concentrated especially on reading and developed teaching methods that help children with reading difficulties. “Six years ago I was teaching an 8-year-old boy, Douglas,” she says, “and the first thing he told me was: ‘Do you know you can’t teach me to read because I have dyslexia?’ When I told him I’ve never heard about that, he didn’t want to believe that I was a real teacher of reading.” After six lessons with her, Douglas could read, she says. When she mentioned his dyslexia, he said he couldn’t remember. “He just said he really enjoyed the last book I loaned him,” she says.

She bases her teaching on establishing a child’s self-esteem and the coordination of physical activity with reading. She stresses phonics. She has gained the respect of fellow teachers, and with her loving grandmother attitude and the energy of a teen-ager she is popular among children and parents.

“I think Mrs. Hector is a unique teacher. She taught my children in kindergarten, and they are now in the second and third year of public school and they are basically bored because they haven’t even covered there what they’ve learned from her,” says Elaine Scott, mother of Monica, 8, and Amy, 6, to whom Hector gave private lessons.

“Any teacher could be a hero, but she loves teaching and children and she was willing to volunteer and do it for free and at her age, that makes her special,” says Jeri Barricklow, a Capistrano teacher.

“Before I die, which I will, I want to help children to learn how to read,” Hector says.

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This column tells the stories of the unsung heroes of Southern California, people of all ages and vocations and avocations, whose dedication as volunteers or on the job makes life better for the people they encounter.