BARRINGTON, Ill. (AP) - Local institutions, made up of many contributors, celebrate 50th anniversaries.
So do married couples, happy to have devoted so much of their lives to another person.
But Diane Kostick of Barrington is in a much rarer category — not only for having engaged in a single line of work for five decades, but one that directly shapes the future of others.
This summer, Kostick marks her 50th continuous year as a teacher . and she has no desire to stop there.
The first 39 years were dedicated to students in Barrington Unit District 220, where she taught several grade levels. Since 2003, Kostick has been teaching college students in Schaumburg -first at the International Academy of Design and Technology, and more recently at the Illinois Institute of Art.
She's also published several educational books, as well as 2002's "Voices of Barrington," which tells the history of her hometown and nine residents considered among its 20th and 21st century pillars.
A common phrase among teachers is that reaching just one student justifies all their efforts. Kostick agrees.
Most of what she knows about teaching came from running her own classroom. But even after five decades, she still doesn't feel she's perfected the art.
While her motivation has changed little over the years, the trappings of the job have. The advent of email, for example, has turned quarterly parent-teacher conferences into daily correspondence with each student's household.
Today she's teaching basic classes like U.S. history and humanities to students proficient in computers, audio, video and graphic design.
Despite the technological advances, there's been a continuity to Kostick's approach.
As a middle school teacher in Barrington, she assigned projects that required young students to reflect on their history, personal experiences and identity. They did so with paper, ink and pictures.
Today, she has students in their 20s through their 40s pour their hearts into a humanities project in which they present a self-portrait through their favorite artistic discipline. Some design a multimedia presentation on a computer while others write and direct a film, perform a song or create a complex drawing steeped in symbolism.
One student who went back to school at 40 turned in a project focused on wanting to be a better father to his daughter than his father was to him.
The unionization of teachers was another major change to the profession during Kostick's career. The movement first came about for valid reasons related to creating a manageable work day for teachers, she says.
"I don't believe any teacher gets up and says, 'I'm not going to do my job today.' They're committed to their students," she says.
John Snow, the founding principal of Barrington Middle School - Station Campus, says he was blessed to know many excellent teachers during a career in education that exceeded 60 years. But Kostick had qualities and an approach to the job that made her distinct even among so many talented colleagues, he said.
"I've never known anyone who was more devoted to the teaching profession," said Snow, who worked with Kostick for 19 years.
Evidence of the special role she played in her students' lives is the number of them she's maintained relationships with years after they left her classroom, Snow said.
Paula Papamarcos, who was in Kostick's 6th grade social studies class in 1968-69, is among them. Now vice president of a company based in Florida, Papamarcos stays in touch with Kostick and sees her while back in Barrington to visit family.
Kostick was so influential that Papamarcos spent several years after the class thinking she wanted to be a teacher too. Kostick's approach to research and use of graphics and illustrations continues to help Papamarcos in her business career.
Kostick remains fired up about the front-row seat she has to the development of students. And she's found working with college students closing in on their dream careers just as exciting as teaching young children just establishing their identities.