POCOMOKE – “See ya Mr. B.”
The phrase, uttered countless times each day by departing students, is one art teacher Bill Buchanan will hear for the last time this spring. After 43 years in the classroom, he’s retiring from his position at Pocomoke High School.
“Mr. Buchanan is an outstanding artist and teacher,” said Annette Wallace, principal at Pocomoke High School. “He will be greatly missed.”
Buchanan, who started his career at Stephen Decatur High School, has spent the past 34 years teaching art at the very school he graduated from as a teenager.
“I wanted to give something back to this community,” he said.
Buchanan, who attended St. Mary’s College, was always an art enthusiast but thought at one time he wanted to be a writer. He changed his mind when he saw the art students working on paintings as he was in the college’s library struggling with an English paper.
“I thought I need to change my major,” he joked.
Though he decided to earn his teaching certification to help pay for his tuition, all it took was student teaching for him to see a career in education was more than something he could fall back on.
“As soon as I walked into that first class, I thought this is for me,” he said. “I enjoyed it immensely.”
Buchanan, who has always worked in high schools, said he loved the interaction with the students. That’s something that never changed in the ensuing decades.
“They come up with original ways of doing art that sometimes I don’t think about,” he said.
Because he teaches students taking art only to meet a graduation requirement as well as students planning to make a career of it, he’s learned to work with students of all abilities. His philosophy is to encourage each individual’s creative voice.
“Everyone has different levels of artistic ability but everybody has something to say artistically,” he said.
Buchanan’s love of teaching didn’t make his decision to retire easy.
“It wasn’t something I picked lightly,” he said.
Though he still enjoys working with student artists, he wants to devote some time to his own projects. Buchanan is an oil painter.
“That dream of mine of being a full-time artist — this gives me the opportunity to do it,” he said.
Nevertheless, Buchanan says he’s going to miss Pocomoke’s students as well as its principal. He’s enjoyed working with Wallace, who he says has been a strong leader at the school.
She, in turn, credits Buchanan with being a mentor to his fellow staff members. She said teachers have long gone to Buchanan for advice and strategies. Wallace is hoping Buchanan will stay involved with the school community in spite of his retirement.
“We’ve already asked him to come back and help with some special projects,” she said. “He’ll be done but not forgotten.”