How Do You Measure a Lifetime of Service?

"525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear." "525,600 minutes how do you measure, measure a year?"

The lyrics of "Seasons of Love" from the musical, "RENT" poetically asks the question how do you describe, measure a year in some one's life. How much harder is it to describe or measure 40 years of some one's life. That's what the Erlanger/Elsmere schools are preparing to do for Dottie Peeke. Ms. Peeke is retiring this year from Lindeman/Miles Elementary schools, after 40 years of teaching music. She is the only music teacher they have EVER had.

"In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee." "In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife."

Ms. Peeke is a petite woman with soft blond hair and an electric smile. Her personality fills a room. Gently. She is after all a southern belle, raised in the mountains of Asheville North Carolina. But for 40 years she's made Northern Kentucky her home. The staff, students, parents of Erlanger/Elsmere schools, her family.

"525,600 minutes, how do you measure a year in the life?"

Dottie didn't find work as a music teacher, teaching music found her. Dottie studied the violin since she was a little girl. Music consumed her. She's been teaching music all of her life. And in the process, teaching her students something else.



"525,600 minutes, how can you measure the life of a woman or a man?"


Dottie Peeke's students have not only learned how to read notes on a scale, or about rhythm and tempo. They have learned about self discipline, teamwork, focus, dedication. They've learned it's better to give then to receive. That anything worth doing is worth doing well. That it takes practice, practice, practice. They've learned what it means to have passion for something, passion for life.

We all have had a Dottie Peeke, or two in our lives. A teacher who may have spent her career teaching students, but during your year in his/her classroom, you felt they were there just for you. A teacher who opened your world to the possibilities that life had to offer and poured wisdom and knowledge into you that didn't come from a book. A teacher that transformed you while embracing you. And they did it for every student, every year. Year after year, after year. I bet you could remember his or her name right now.

How do you measure the impact of that? Quite simply,

" You remember the love." "You measure the love."

Best Wishes to you, Dottie Peeke. Well Done.