A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Medical School

Is there a person who attended Zeigler schools during the 1930’s, 40’s, or 50’s that does not recognize the title Pappy Kern?  During that era, there was hardly a school day that passed, that Owen Kern was not at the school house door to welcome his students to the “Old School” (Zeigler Elementary School).  Within time, he became a legendary school leader in Zeigler and Franklin County.

Kern migrated to Zeigler from his boyhood home in Macedonia, Illinois in 1928.  With a wife of two years, and a nine months old child in tow, and two stormy years of teaching at Boster School in Hamilton County and West Point School in Franklin County behind him, he came to the booming coal town for a brief stint.  Unknown to the local school board, Owen had just been notified that he had been selected to receive a scholarship to attend the University of Illinois Medical School at Chicago.  But, after attending Southern Illinois Normal University, he was financially strapped and unable to go directly to medical school, so he scheduled a brief stop in Zeigler to improve his bank balance.

During the 1928-1929 school year, Kern was assigned to teach at the junior high school, located in the Leiter Building.  Having taught the previous two years at one-room schools, with a total enrollment of 23 and 52 students respectively, the departmental setting proved to be a welcome change for Kern.  At the Zeigler junior high school, he was no longer the total instruction and custodial staff, but focused his efforts on teaching history, English, and health education.  In addition to teaching, Kern was also designated as the junior high school coach, thus making a good teaching position better.

As fate would have it, the 1929 Stock Market Crash, and the subsequent Great Depression, sabotaged Kern’s plans for a medical degree.  After weighing the cost of medical school against his wealth, he decided to stay at Zeigler to provide for his wife and children.  As a result, his second assignment from the board of education was to assume the operation of the Zeigler Elementary School as principal, a position that he held for a period of 30 years.

The Depression Years were difficult for Zeigler families, because they were fighting both national economic despair and a coal mining slump.  Most of the time miners were working only two or three days per week, if at all.  Thus, as time passed, many families left Zeigler in search of work.  This outward migration caused the enrollment of the elementary school to decline from more than 1,000 students to little more than 600.  But Kern, true to his dedication to students, worked to keep the curriculum as strong as any in Southern Illinois.  Under his leadership, phonics and a strong reading program were initiated at the first grade level.

In addition to curricular improvements, Kern, along with elementary superintendent Curt Jennings, created several support programs.  One of the most noted, created due to the location of the Zeigler and Leiter Schools, and the high volume of automobile and railroad traffic, was the School Safety Program.  Through the years, many dependable youngsters were selected to be “Patrol Boys”.   Day in and day out, the boys were at their post to assist students in crossing busy streets and railroad crossings.  Years later, several of the boys indicated that they wore their patrol belt as a badge of honor, because they had been selected by Mr. Kern.

In the late 1930’s, Zeigler High School became one of the power house basketball teams of Illinois.  During the seasons of 1936, 1937, and 1939 the local team represented the south in the state finals in Champaign (single class system).  The majority of the players on those teams had migrated through the elementary program and the tutelage of Coach Kern.  Kern’s sound basic instruction continued to produce outstanding players through the remainder of his career and the high school continued to have many fine teams.

In 1960, as retirement was upon him, a reporter asked Kern if he had misgivings about turning down his medical scholarship.  In retrospect, Kern indicated that in the early years of teaching he had some regrets, but later the association with the wonderful children of Zeigler, including seven of his own, had been adequate compensation. 

Submitted by Dr. Allan Patton, PHD

This page was last updated on February 25, 2006

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