After 36 years of teaching, special education teacher Winston Rose is retiring. Before working in special education, Rose started in 1986 as a literacy and reading teacher for Caribbean children at ETHS. Rose recalls one of his earliest and best memories was not wanting to be a teacher, but the idea becoming more fond as he continued to mentor children. 

“I had come back from California,” Rose remembered. “I’d been there for over a year. I came back here and just needed a job to pay some bills, get some money, and it grew on me. So I went back to school to get my certification to be a teacher.”

Ever since Rose received his certification, he has treasured the different experiences he has had, as well as the students he got to teach and see grow over the years. 

“I’m going to miss the students, the fun that I had with the students, working with the students and seeing them go from freshman to senior year,” Rose said. “I teach freshman, but even after I leave my class, I see them around the school year-after-year, and then I see them as seniors. I remember saying to the ones that were in my class, ‘Hey, listen, we’re going to graduate together.’”

As a teacher, Rose has seen the variety of opportunities that the school offers students and suggests that students look for them, but he also feels that the school needs to assist students with looking for the opportunities. 

“I would advise students seek out the opportunities that are here so you can try to make the best plan you can for what you do after high school,” Rose said. “If you don’t want to go to college, that’s fine, so what kind of jobs do you want? How can this school help set you up to get a good job? If you do want to go to college, seek out people who can give you that advice, but definitely as we try to help you, you should also seek out opportunities that will help you.”

As Rose begins to focus more on his next chapter, he expressed his excitement for retirement.

“I’m excited not to be [working] for a while,” Rose said. “People have asked me this before, and I’ve thought about doing adult [education] to work with adults who want to improve their literacy, their reading and writing. I’ve done that, and I like it, especially with people who are immigrants and they want to improve because they’re from a Spanish background. I live near Oakton Community College, so I thought about going over there within a year or so and seeing if I can look into their program.”

Rose mentioned that his wife has expressed her desire to see her family in Spain for a few months and that Rose may plan to see his family in Jamaica at some point in his retirement. At the moment, however, Rose plans to stay in the United States where his friends and fondest memories are.