Clarke Central High School fine arts department teacher Harriet Anderson sits in the Mell Auditorium on April 29. CCHS fine arts department teacher Tony Rucker has built a strong relationship with Anderson during her 26 years at CCHS. “It’s been a wonderful experience of working with Mrs. Anderson. When we first started off (working together) years and years ago, she had a little office down by the other side of the art room (and) she always told me about having musicals or doing musicals, and periodically she needed me to help her, especially with voices,” Rucker said. “Then that kind of segued into playing for the performances. I didn’t play for all of them but I’ve played for numerous musicals that we’ve had here at Clarke Central.” Photo by Luna Reichert
After 26 years of teaching drama, Clarke Central High School fine arts department teacher Harriet Anderson will retire at the end of the 2020-21 school year.
Anderson, a 1977 CCHS alumna, returned to CCHS during the 1994-95 school year to teach drama and has remained in that position throughout the entirety of her teaching career.
Act I: Attending CCHS and college
Anderson began teaching as a fine arts teacher at CCHS in 1995, and prior to her teaching career, attended CCHS from 1974 to 1977. Anderson says the school was much different then compared to how it is today.
Clarke Central High School fine arts department teacher Harriet Anderson poses for a photo in the 1977 edition of the Gladius Yearbook. Anderson graduated from CCHS in 1977 and she felt fine arts were not a priority at the school back then. “I came in and the red velvet curtains had rips in them — they (started to try) to rebuild the program. We had a halftime English teacher, halftime drama teacher,” Anderson said. “We had a seven-period day, and she taught drama two periods a day, English four periods a day and had a planning period. So those two periods a day is when we began to rebuild the program.” Photo courtesy of the Gladius Yearbook
“When I got here to start (high) school, Clarke Central was very much in upheaval,” Anderson said. “We had only been integrated for five years or three years. Three years really, and five years by law. (At the time), the arts were not a (major) priority at all, (but) they were really trying to rebuild the (drama) program.”
Anderson’s first brush with theatre began as a student at CCHS, where she filled a variety of roles within the drama program.
“I was an actor, a stage manager and a costumer. When I was in high school, that was my actual first (drama) experience,” Anderson said. “I only did a tiny bit of theatre when I went away to college because I was in a totally different career path at that point.”
When Anderson got to college, she initially decided to pursue a career in a field other than theatre.
“The first school I went to was Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin,” Anderson said. “I went there for environmental science. In the late 70s there had been a glut of jobs, but I was in a place where there weren’t a lot of jobs available (in that field),” Anderson said. “If I had tried about five years earlier I would have been able to have my pick, but that was just how it worked out.”
Eventually Anderson transferred to the University of Georgia where she made the decision to involve herself in the theatre education field.
“(At this point, it feels like) I have always been involved in theater. I was a theater kid at Clarke Central. By (the time I was at UGA), I was running my (own) costume shop. I had (a) costume company, and I said ‘If you ever want to do anything besides be a vagabond, you got to go get your degree,’” Anderson said. “I finished my degree in theater, (and) I started teaching (in CCSD) soon after that.”
“‘If you ever want to do anything besides be a vagabond, you got to go get your degree,’ (so) I finished my degree in theater, (and) I started teaching (in CCSD) soon after that.”
— Harriet Anderson,
Clarke Central High School fine arts department teacher
Act II: Teaching at CCHS
Anderson came back to CCHS, equipped with her new degree in theatre, due to budget cuts within the Clarke County School District.
“(The Board of Education) went to cut the drama program. The students picketed and protested (to) the board office and demanded that their program not be cut,” Anderson said. “The (BOE) hired me half-time at Clarke Central and half-time at W.R. Coile (Middle School). I was at (those) two schools for five years. That was tough, but I got through it. When (CCHS) went to block scheduling the first time, the (BOE) brought me over here full time.”
Over the course of her career at CCHS, Anderson has faced a variety of challenges due to a lack of fine arts funding.
“I didn’t get a real workable classroom until five or six years ago,” Anderson said. “(Drama classes) were either in the Small Auditorium or Mel Auditorium, which plays havoc for discipline issues and plays havoc for any kind of real educational environment. (The Black Box Theater) is a much better educational environment. The (lack of classroom) and a lack of tacit and financial support at first (made it difficult), but that’s changing.”
CCHS fine arts department teacher Tony Rucker has worked alongside Anderson throughout her entire time at CCHS, and says Anderson has always worked hard to do her job despite the difficulties she has faced.
“It’s always been an excitement to me to watch how she’s been able to do (the theatre productions), do the sets, get the kids ready for some dances, go back to sets again, (lighting), all that,” Rucker said. “She’s been able to teach kids to do it (all) and do it herself. She’d be up sometimes (for) many hours, sewing costumes and supplying costumes.”
Clarke Central High School fine arts department teacher Harriet Anderson watches as a student disassembles a set piece in the Mell Auditorium on April 29. Anderson has done a variety of shows throughout her time at CCHS and says it is hard to pick a favorite production. “Doing the shows (in collaboration) with Cedar Shoals was great fun. Doing the tiny little shows where you build a tight cast and a tight relationship, those are amazing,” Anderson said. “Big flash and trash musicals are (also) great fun.” Photo by Luna Reichert
Retired CCHS Principal’s Secretary Connie Weggman, who worked with Anderson for 15 years, says that she has always been a reliable source of support for others in the school.
“She was always willing to help anytime I called upon her,” Weggman said. “I was in charge of getting classes covered when teachers were out sick. If there wasn’t a substitute Harriet would always say, ‘Bring that class to the auditorium.’ I knew I could always count on her.”
Anderson has strove to build lasting connections with her students through her teaching.
“Students make choices as to who they choose for their ‘adult’ (at school). Many of my students don’t choose me, and that’s okay. Many students (do) choose me as an adult figure in their life, as an adult figure to trust and to talk to and to help shape them,” Anderson said. “My relationships to (my students) — I think familial is how I would describe it.”
CCHS junior Anna Tenner has been taught by Anderson since she began high school, and she believes Anderson has developed a unique relationship with her students.
“She doesn’t have any kids, so we’re her kids. The show we just did, ‘A Piece Of My Heart,’ had a bunch of alumni from 20 years ago (that) came to see it. That just shows how much of an impact she has,” Tenner said. “She’s not a person you forget. You always remember her. At first, you might be intimidated, but then she’s so welcoming. She always makes sure you know that you’re included and wanted there.”
Rucker has seen the influence Anderson has had on her students throughout her teaching career.
“I’ve always enjoyed her discipline with students. She’s in charge, and she exudes that discipline and teaches that discipline to other students (so) that they might be able to follow (her) and be leaders,” Rucker said. “Many of them have (even) become actors (and) actresses professionally.”
Act III: Retirement
Reflecting on the influence she has had on the CCHS drama program, Anderson believes that the time is finally right for her to retire.
“A lot of people have asked, ‘Why are you retiring now?’ Well, I started old. I was 35 (years old) when I started. This job is not a job where you sit or where you stand at a blackboard, or even run labs,” Anderson said. “It’s always something physical, and my body just can’t handle it. I want the students to have a teacher who is energetic, who has new ideas and who is not 26 years tired.”
“I want the students to have a teacher who is energetic, who has new ideas and who is not 26 years tired.”
— Harriet Anderson,
Clarke Central High School fine arts department teacher
Anderson plans for after her retirement will be to focus on her personal affairs and responsibilities.
“I’m going to garden. I live in the country and the forest in Georgia will take over your house if you’re not careful,” Anderson said. “I’m going to beat back the jungle, and I’m going to travel some, and I’m going to relax.”
Wegmann commends Anderson’s decision to retire, but feels that CCHS will not be the same without her.
“Don’t get me wrong, retirement is the best. (Anderson) will love it and she so deserves it. However, Clarke Central will be losing the best drama teacher ever,” Wegmann said.
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