Navigating the development of Special Education in public schools, Lynn Gross, special education teacher, is retiring after 22 years at ETHS. Gross teaches freshmen and sophomores, and for the past 10 years, he has primarily been teaching algebra.

“I guess when I got into college I was pretty much clueless as to what to do,” Gross said. “But then through some good advisors, it brought me around to thinking education was something I wanted to do.”  

Gross described his skepticism as he entered the field of special education. Around the time he began his teaching career, special education still remained very suppressed.

“In the mid-70s, the whole special education program evolved and started to take off… and at first I wasn’t really keen on the idea, but after doing a couple of visits with the school, I decided that special education was the way to go,” Gross said.

Gross also described the involvement he’s had within the development of the special education programs.

“I realized that in my first couple of years of teaching that things were changing so quickly and so fast, it was kind of a struggle to keep up with it,” Gross said.

This experience of evolution within the program was overwhelming at first, he reflected. Gross’s first memories of teaching were really just a lot of trial and error since special education was so new and recently accepted at the time.  

He claims he has learned so much over the two decades he’s worked in this building. Learning how to better communicate, is one major skill he plans to take into retirement. Whether that be with his students, and even the colleagues he has gotten to know over the years.

Gross stressed how much his fellow teachers have made an impact on him. He also explained how much seeking guidance from others has gotten him to the place he is now. ETHS will be sad to say goodbye to Gross as he heads into retirement, but we can still expect many great things to come as he plans to continue on the education path.

“I want to someway somehow stay connected in education, I’m not sure what that looks like yet but I think … everything has been very fast paced and cutting myself from that schedule will allow me to do the things I want to do.” Gross said.