FHS teacher Flinspach retires after 42 years

Fairfield High School was an early adopter of computer programming classes four decades ago thanks largely to instructor Sharon Flinspach, who began a class on computer coding in the fall of 1980.

At the time, Flinspach was in just her second year of teaching. In her 42-year teaching career, all at Fairfield High School, Flinspach has taught not just computer programming courses but also classes in mathematics, and has led the school’s Talented and Gifted (TAG) program since 1990. Flinspach decided this year that she has accomplished all she set out to do at the high school, and will retire at the end of the school year.

Flinspach said she has no plans to leave the area, since her husband, Jim, plans to continue farming here. She said it’s kind of funny that her career trajectory turned out similar to how she expected when she started teaching. One of the first friends she made in the district was fellow instructor Diane Goudy. Flinspach recalled that, after each graduation, she and Goudy would joke “One down, 40 more to go,” or however many years were left until they turned 65, which was how long they planned to work. Flinspach nearly lived up to that joke, but is retiring a year early.

During her career, Flinspach has been included in the publication "Who's Who Among America's Teachers" several times and was Fairfield's "Teacher of the Year" for Fairfield High School in 2006.

Early life

Sharon grew up in the city of Highland, in the northwest corner of Indiana. Her father was a chemistry professor and her mother was a nurse. She said she was inspired to go into education by having so many family members in the profession in addition to her father such as both her grandmothers and two aunts. However, she wanted to pursue an educational career away from home, so she enrolled at Drake University in Des Moines.

“I was the youngest in the family, and I didn’t want it to be so easy to rely on Mom and Dad,” Flinspach said. “It was a six-hour drive, so I never took my laundry home, and I didn’t have a car. That’s how it was in the late 1970s. My mom kept in touch with me by writing letters.”

Flinspach studied math at Drake, but over time she developed a stronger interest in the budding field of computers.

“Computers were more hands on, more concrete than math,” she said.

Coming to Fairfield

Flinspach saw an ad for an open teaching position in the Fairfield Community School District. When she interviewed for the job, she learned that the incoming superintendent wanted her to start a computer programming class. Flinspach was hired for the job, and after her first year of teaching math, she added computer programming to her list of classes for the 1980-81 school year. Before that school year started, she attended a workshop to familiarize herself with a coding language known as BASIC, which she taught to her students.

The 1980-81 high school yearbook includes an article about Flinspach (then known by her maiden name, Sharon Carlson) and her new computer class. Flinspach recalls that the computers used back then were TRS-80 RadioShack computers, whose programs were stored on cassette tapes. Though the technology seems primitive by today’s standards, it was cutting edge at the time, and students were excited to be taking a brand-new class.

“There was a lot of enthusiasm for computer programming, and a lot of kids wanted to take the class,” Flinspach said.

Culture shock

Flinspach said she had to overcome a little culture shock upon moving to Fairfield. For one thing, it felt odd that she was just a few years older than her students. Furthermore, she was accustomed to the anonymity of big-city living.

“When I was growing up, I didn’t see my teachers at church or at the store or on a walk,” Flinspach said. “In Fairfield, I can’t take a walk without seeing students. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see them, it was just really strange to me.”

Flinspach has had to add skills each year of teaching. She’s taught herself computer programming languages such as Python and Java, and has added classes on web page design. For the past 30 years, she’s led the school’s TAG program, which is mostly giving students a chance to do independent study on a passion of their choice. Some students have used the class to study foreign languages or advanced math.

One of her TAG students, Daniel Kraus, has become a successful author, and wrote the book “The Shape of Water” that was made into a movie. Flinspach said Kraus wrote his first novel in TAG, which she still has, though he’s told her he doesn’t want anyone to read it.