Quiet and thoughtful may be your first impression of Jean Fennacy. That impression misses her passion. "Reading opens the world," she said.

To open the world for a child a teacher must "look at each child as an individual and see the abilities each child has and how we can use those abilities to make each child a more proficient reader," she said. Fennacy, retiring this spring as reading and language arts program director, has been teaching teachers to produce proficient readers at FPU for 26 years.

During her tenure Fennacy saw three California Commission on Teacher Credentialing reviews, a Western Association of School and Colleges reaccreditation, a stint as associate dean and service on a myriad of campus committees. Among her informal honors, she is a founding resident of Bartsch Hall. "I think I'm the only person of those who first moved in who's still in the same office," she said. "Which means there's some stuff to be cleaned."

Fennacy's office shows a reader at work. Shelves are crammed with books and magazines, with more lining the walls. Framed pictures from The Horn Book, a journal of children's and young adult literature, hang on the walls.

Some students who entered that office became colleagues. Bobbi Jentes Mason, single subject program director in teacher education was the first potential student Fennacy interviewed. Rene Lebsock, education faculty, was in her first teacher education class.

Lebsock spotted something different about Fennacy's classes. "Jean used the same teaching techniques she was teaching us. My classes had always been 'instructor lectures and student listens' but in her classes we were actively engaged in the learning process," Lebsock said.

Mason found Fennacy interested in individual students and the field as a whole. "Jean has had incredible influence on literacy because of her bringing nationally and internationally known literacy scholars to the university," Mason said. "And her keen intellect helped so many graduate students work through a master's project."

Though a Fresno native, Fennacy's first contact with Fresno Pacific came when she was teaching in Fresno Unified School District and brought her fourth grade class to a production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Fennacy's inspiration to become an FPU student and faculty member was Jane Skinner, her predecessor as program director. But her first contact with Skinner started poorly.

A cafeteria full of teachers was at Lane Elementary for an in-service presentation. Skinner was the speaker, but had forgotten the appointment. "The teachers were fussing," Fennacy remembered. Someone called Skinner and she came over. Any fussing Fennacy was doing quickly turned to fascination. "I found her presentation rather enlightening," Fennacy said in her understated style, "and I thought I'd like to hear more."

After enrolling in the reading specialist program, Fennacy developed a writing class and co-taught a reading class with Skinner. After 16 years at FUSD as a classroom teacher and reading specialist, Fennacy was coming the end of a three-year special assignment teaching teachers to teach writing. FPU was attractive because Fennacy would have more flexibility while finishing her doctorate.

Through the years Fennacy has kept that passion. "I'm still working with wonderful students: teachers who want to make children into thoughtful, joyful readers," she said.

The field has changed, and may be changing again. "When I came here in the eighties it was a very rich time," Fennacy said. Teachers were involved in curriculum decisions and there was a rich array of trade books in the classroom.

The past 10 years saw the rise of outside forces, such as No Child Left Behind and the emphasis on standardized tests. "That's reduced the curriculum in many places," she said. "California has had a particularly restricted view of NCLB." This emphasis often results in teaching to the test.

For the future? "There's beginning to be some loosening up," Fennacy said. Research has criticized Reading First, the NCLB reading program, as ineffective, with its emphasis on "fluency" as the ability to read fast with little or no concern for meaning. "My philosophy hasn't changed. I still see that the purpose of reading is to make meaning," Fennacy said. "That's what makes passionate readers."

As for Fennacy's future, "retirement" will return her to her first role at FPU: adjunct faculty. "I'll do pretty much what I'm doing now--but I won't have to go to meetings and serve on committees," she said, and that was a smile. There's also gardening and Petunia's Place, the bookstore she co-owns.

"It's been a great ride," Fennacy said. "I've said many times God put me here for a reason, and it's not what I could give but what I could receive."

This article was originally published in Pacific, July 2009.