Pictured from left are Alex Bartlett, Ashley McClain (Alex’s fiance), Jenna Yoder (former Bartlett), Grant Yoder (Jenna’s husband), Kyle Bartlett, Kaylie Bartlett (Kyle’s wife), Carol Bartlett and Jeff Bartlett. Courtesy photo

While the national teacher shortage will likely continue into the new year, one local family of five is doing its part to revitalize the profession — whether it be due to a lifelong passion for education or a lighthearted dare.

The Bartlett family of Bellwood — Jeff and Carol Bartlett; daughter, Jenna, 23; and sons Kyle, 28, and Alex, 27 — are teachers and coaches, with Jeff recently entering the field as a substitute teacher on a dare.

“It’s a conversation piece, for sure,” Jeff Bartlett said.

Kyle Bartlett, who teaches at the Hollidaysburg Area School District, said every time school was cancelled or delayed, his dad would joke about teachers always getting those days off.

“We all teased him,” Kyle said. “We said, ‘All right dad, you’re just jealous. You want to try teaching one day.'”

After a while, his dad relented with “fine, I’ll give it a shot,” Kyle said.

“For me, it was more of a challenge,” Jeff said. “I wanted to see if I could do something else. I’ve had the same job for 35 years.”

An account manager for ArcBest, Jeff said there was such a dire need for substitutes and he had so much vacation time from his “normal job” that he would use vacation days to take jobs as a substitute teacher.

“I’ve been called crazy for doing that,” Jeff said. “I wanted to busy myself with something.”

Carol said that keeping busy was “just part of his personality — part of his makeup.”

“He’s coached many times throughout the years and loves working with kids,” Carol said.

Jeff echoed this, saying interacting with the kids “is the best part,” although teaching can be different from coaching.

“After I got through the initial scary part, I really enjoyed it,” Jeff said.

Follow the path

While Jeff was the last in the family to get into education, the first was Carol. An 11th grade English teacher at the Bellwood-Antis School District, Carol became a full-time teacher in 2013 and worked as a substitute for seven years before that. Her dream was to teach high school.

“When I was in 11th grade myself, I had an English teacher I really admired,” Carol said. “I wanted to follow in that path.”

Both Erie natives, Carol said she and Jeff came to Altoona when Jeff transferred jobs. They’ve been in the community for 22 years, she said.

When asked if she thought any of her children would also become teachers, Carol said she “really didn’t.”

“I thought maybe my youngest, Jenna, might be the only one to go into teaching,” Carol said. “My two sons, I didn’t think they would go into teaching.”

A math teacher, Kyle said he had a couple of other things he wanted to pursue when he was 18, such as engineering, architecture or design.

“I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” Kyle said. “I didn’t know I wanted to be a teacher, I just knew I needed to do something. My mom was like ‘why don’t you try teaching?’ That’s kind of how I got into it.”

His mom was actually one of his teachers in middle school, Kyle said, and was always very impactful on his life.

“I didn’t want to do exactly like my mom,” Kyle said. “I wanted to do something a little different.”

Jenna, however, said she couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

“I loved playing school with my stuffed animals when I was little,” Jenna said. “I would put games in front of them and create assignments. I just really like planning and organizing things.”

Passionate about profession

Like his children, Jeff followed in his wife’s footsteps and began his substitute teaching at Bellwood-Antis. His first day on the job, though, had him feeling like he “came in from a whole different world.”

“I’m used to teachers in the ’80s,” Jeff said. “That first time, I was a little freaked out when all the fifth graders came flooding in. I thought ‘what am I doing? I’m not a teacher.'”

The most important thing, Jeff said, is that his kids are proud of him for following through.

“They’re professionals and they’re good at what they do,” Jeff said. “I’m just somebody that’s a placeholder.”

He said he has “great respect” for teachers because they “have such a difficult job” and have to be “on all day long and making sure they’re taking care of all of the responsibilities of that job on a daily basis.”

Jeff is especially proud of his family, saying Kyle’s looking to become a principal, Alex wants to be an athletic director and Jenna is pursuing a masters degree.

“It’s my wife’s influence because she’s so good at it and passionate about what she does,” Jeff said. “My job is sales, so they weren’t going to work with me and see what I do. They saw what Carol did and it came naturally to them.”

Kyle said his parents encouraged them to go with their strengths, find their own paths and “the irony of it all is that we all became teachers.”

“Our parents believed in our abilities and told us the routes we could take,” Kyle said.

Support system built in

One of the benefits of having immediate family in the same line of work is the support system that comes with it. Jeff said they all live locally and get together often, with conversation usually revolving around teaching.

“I listen and shake my head and say ‘I don’t know how you deal with that every day,'” Jeff said. “I’ve been in there but nothing like they’ve gone through.”

Jenna said she really leans on her mom, especially since she “knows the ins and outs of teaching.”

“I call my mom frequently about school — she’s my rock,” Jenna said. “I would not be able to get through teaching without her.”

She described Kyle as “very analytical,” so when she brings up a problem about school, he would “nitpick” it.

“He’s great to talk to about teaching,” Jenna said. “Alex, too, he’s had all the kids I’ve had at Tyrone.”

For Carol, their conversations are “great.”

“It’s a nice common bond we share,” Carol said. “We talk about the direction education is going and changes we’d like to see made.”

Kyle agreed, adding that they also bounce ideas off each other.

“We share the profession so it keeps us close even though we don’t live in the same house,” Kyle said.

Kyle took things a step further and even married his college sweetheart, who owns a preschool that she also teaches at. His mother-in-law is also an elementary school teacher. He described it as “a really cool dynamic.”

“Teaching is a great profession and it’s changing all the time,” Kyle said. “We just need to make sure we are willing to change with the times.”