At 80, Philly's Erlene Bass Nelson keeps teaching and learning

Even after 50 years with the Philadelphia School District, even after she officially retired in 2008, Erlene Bass Nelson kept returning to Drew Elementary to offer advice to faculty and parents.

"She would call repeatedly to see how she could help and give her support," principal Huie Douglas said of Nelson's persistence.

Her desire to help the West Philadelphia school where she taught from 2002 to 2008 was almost as remarkable as her energy and youthful appearance.

At 80, she still has the same kick. With an electric blue suit and perfectly coiffed hair, Nelson briskly set up for her first class this year at Parent University, where she teaches a course on character development to parents in the Philadelphia School District.

She turned a white-walled conference room into a classroom decorated with posters, photographs, and care packages for her students. When a corner of one poster came loose, she jumped out of her chair to fix it, moving about on legs a 30-year-old might envy.

The only evidence of age is her hearing. "You have to talk loud for these old ears," she joked when her adult students arrived. Yet, when one of the parents' children chirped "I write my name" in a little voice, Nelson heard 3-year-old Madeline perfectly. It was almost as if she were back in her kindergarten classroom, connecting with students as she did for five decades.

Everyone Nelson encounters seems charmed by her vivacity. A call to the School District office elicits, "Isn't she the best?"

The National Teachers Hall of Fame thought so, inducting her last spring - only the third time a Philadelphia teacher had made the cut.

Ekawati Phiong of South Philadelphia likes Nelson so much that she took for a second time Nelson's "Character Building: Beyond the Three R's" at Parent University, bringing her three children with her rather than miss the first class.

"She teaches us how to manage how we act," Phiong said of Nelson's ability to teach parents how to be better role models.

"Dr. Nelson is always thoughtful and caring, honest, and to the point. She has opened my mind to many more new ideas," a former student wrote in an evaluation of the class sent to Superintendent Arlene Ackerman.

Nelson's resumé includes awards and recognitions four pages long with 56 bullet points. They range from teaching kindergartners to design their own clothes to helping bring a $5 million grant from the late philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg to the School District.

She has received national media attention, and recognition from Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter on World Teachers' Day. A banner that she designed based on the 20 character traits taught in her class hangs in the offices of Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education.

Throughout her long career, said Nelson, a mother of two sons, what the students taught her kept her going. "I learned far more from them than they learned from me," she said.

Despite encountering emerging problems in the younger generation, including the breakup of families, hypersexual behavior at young ages, and lack of appropriate role models, Nelson stuck with what she dedicated her life to: teaching and learning.

Children "are spontaneous, they're loving, they're forgiving, and every day I had an injection of pure love into my soul and into my heart," said Nelson.

She recalled her own childhood in St. Louis as one of happiness but also of searching for her identity. Adopted at birth, Nelson grew up not knowing who her biological parents were.

She met her biological mother in 1969 when she said she suddenly felt compelled to find her. Her mother, who had tried to visit Nelson as a child but was not allowed to see her, was dying of pancreatic cancer.

"Before then, my life was like a book that had no title on the cover," Nelson said. "Every page began to have identity."

Reflecting on her past, Nelson said, she became more empathetic to her students, many of whom were missing a parent.

"I am very awed by having been a little girl who never really knew her parents, raised in a foster home, ostracized by the juvenile support system for being biracial and illegitimate," she said, ". . .to have become the person today who is very well-respected and admired by her peers and colleagues in the city of Philadelphia and beyond."