If you know anything about Kathy Wilson, you know that she is the most surprising educator of her time. Kathy Wilson, quite specifically, was not known as a college graduate. According to the now-educator, Wilson reportedly went for the romance. “College had been going on for a couple of weeks, and my friends said there were really cute guys at Friends University, so I enrolled the next day. When I was a sophomore in college, I was an aide with part of our program and just fell in love. I knew that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life is work with kids.” That’s what drew her to be a local teacher.
But how did this educate local teacher Kathy Wilson to be all she could be?
Wilson held plenty of roles throughout her career as a teacher and working through the ranks towards the role of a school principal. Wilson was always fascinated in advocating for the children. So of course, there would be a great shattering of glass ceilings. “I was also a person that accepted their differences, no matter what they were, and I felt like they needed that. Actually, that was my main motivation for becoming a principal.”
It’s in her beginning of educating the youth that Wilson was often discouraged by her colleagues to pursue a principal role… As school principal. Simply because, it was widely believed that the principal should be a man, due to disciplinary stereotypes.
But surely, Kathy Wilson chose to fight against the stigma held against her as a local teacher. Which essentially made her a local legend. These days, Kathy chooses to volunteer to non-profits, like GLSEN and the Assistance League of Wichita.
