Teaching is a Labor of Love for Kathy Phelan by Evelyn Boswell Kathy Phelan, '64 PE, started her career as a physical education major, and 40 years later, she's still running. President of the Idaho Education Association, Phelan recently returned from a 10-day educational mission to China at the invitation of the Idaho Department of Education. While in Idaho, she spends much of her time driving and flying around the state to care for the 12,000 people who belong to the union. Before settling in McCall, Idaho, to teach elementary music, she taught in California and New Jersey. She taught at U.S. military bases in Okinawa, Korea and Germany. "Education has been a great career for me," said Phelan who took a leave of absence from teaching to lead the union. "Thanks to the education I got at Montana State, I feel I have been able to participate in my profession as fully as possible." Phelan followed her mother into the field and learned much from her activism. Clara Phelan taught school for "years and years and years" in Great Falls and was involved in activities to try to make teaching as attractive as possible. The elder Phelan was active in the Montana Education Association and the Montana Federation of Teachers. Kathy Phelan started out teaching physical education, but switched to music in which she minored at MSU. She later received a graduate degree in music from the University of Calgary. "I think you reach an age, although I'm sorry to say this, where running outside and getting cold and shouting the length of the football field is very tiring," Phelan said. "Music was a way to develop my creativity a little more." Phelan was named Idaho's outstanding teacher in 1986 by U.S. West. She has been active in music and physical education associations. She worked on state curriculum committees and became president of the IEA in 2001 "right when the economy went south and 9/11 happened." "We have had some pretty major challenges," Phelan said, referring in part to the political atmosphere and federal programs like "No Child Left Behind." Phelan will leave her position in 2005. When she does, she may move back to McCall where she taught K-5 music since 1976 and has been active in the arts, Phelan said. She may also retire in the next couple of years, but said, "I'm trying to imagine who I am without education." One option, she said, would be volunteering to work with people who speak English as a second language.