So he became a farmer
People who can, do — and those who can’t, teach. Or so goes the old adage. But what happens to those who give up teaching?
Apparently, they become farmers.
Or so goes the story as told by Don Mohler, who briefly spoke Thursday about Councilman Joseph Bartenfelder’s brief tenure as a teacher.
Bartenfelder taught from 1979 to 1981. The last year was spent as a long-term substitute at Chesapeake High School, in Essex, where he taught drafting and business (he was also involved in the family farm at the time).
Both were at Chesapeake High School for an event celebrating education and the county’s 350th anniversary.
“(Bartenfelder) roamed these halls … as a teacher,” said Mohler, the current county spokesman who was a teacher, principal, northeast area schools superintendent and assistant superintendent for communications and community relations in the county school system.
“Two years of teaching, and he decided to become a farmer,” Mohler joked.
“True story,” replied Bartenfelder, who said he left teaching because he knew he was “going to go the political route.”