Fishers Resident Laura Irvin Looks Back on 20 Years as a Local Educator
Writer / Amie Drudge
Photography Provided
Children talk often about growing up. They simply cannot wait to do it. We were all asked at some point in time that age-old
question – What will you be when you grow up?
For Laura Irvin, her answer was always simple. She wanted to be a teacher. “As a small child I would set up my own classroom and play teacher,” she says. “As a teenager I took every babysitting job I could get.”
When it was time for college, she stayed true to that dream and walked into Purdue University to declare herself a teaching major. The rest has been a dream come true for not only her, but also every single student who has crossed her path in the last two decades.
For the last 20 years Mrs. Laura has worked at The Goddard School at Brooks School, where she has molded the minds and hearts of hundreds if not thousands of children in the Fishers/Geist community. She teaches motor skills, counting, social skills, problem solving, teamwork, early academic foundation skills, and most importantly, she teaches our children to be kind and treat everyone equal. She is a gift and the children simply adore her.
But we couldn’t just take anyone’s word on it. We went straight to the source to ask the minds who really count…the 4- and 5-year-old children who see her daily at her best and at her worst. What came out of their mouths sounded something like a symphony:
- She is beautiful
- She is kind
- She is a princess
- She always wears lipstick
- She gives the best hugs
- She is family
- Her hair is golden
- She is like Cinderella
- We love Mrs. Laura!
Perhaps these are the kinds of words spoken about you when your life motto is, “Always stay humble and kind.” Perhaps this is the gift you get when you stay true to your childhood dream and live it every single day. When we asked her peers the same question, we heard words like selfless, mentor, hard-working and dedicated.
Mrs. Laura has made The Goddard School at Brooks School a second home for not only herself, but also for her two boys.
“The friends my boys have now are the friends they made here at this preschool all of those years ago,” she says. A few of these friends graduated from high school last spring and Mrs. Laura was at their open houses to celebrate.
When asked if she ever thought of quitting, she says “of course, but then you look around at the children and you understand that they are quick to forgive and they don’t hold grudges. Every moment is different with them and that’s what makes it so special.”
She graduated from Hamilton Southeastern High School and has deep roots in the Fishers/Geist community. Her mother was one of the founders of the Fisher’s Freedom Festival and her father, in his retirement, works at Conner Prairie.
She lives in Fishers with her husband, Josh, and her two boys, Landon and Logan.
“It is an honor for a parent to choose us for their children,” she says.
The honor is all ours. Congratulations, from the entire Fishers/Geist community, on 20 years of service at Goddard!
