Retiring teacher's hand-drawn legacy plants seeds for her students

A rose is a rose is a rose, Gertrude Stein wrote.

For teacher Rhonda Sherbin, who is retiring after three decades, a rose is a symbol both of her love of art and her devotion to teaching.

For 30 years, Sherbin has cultivated drawings of roses and shared them with her students.

The rose has grown and matured over the years, just as Sherbin and her students have. And now, come the end of the school year, Sherbin will retire … as will her rose.

Sherbin first drew the flower for her father, Dr. Arthur Sherbin, when she was about 2 or 3 years old. He didn't want a store-bought greeting card, so Sherbin made one for him – highlighted by the flower. She saw that store-bought cards − like Hallmark − had a flower, so she made hers have one also. It became "her thing."

"He is the one that got me into art," said Sherbin, who grew up in Highland Park. "I have a degree in art, but I never used it. I went into teaching."

Sherbin taught in the Branchburg school district for 25 years, spending most of the time at Whiton and Old York schools before coming to Branchburg Central Middle School. She began her teaching career in Colts Neck and Somerville. In her career, she taught a variety of subjects in grades K-8.

"I have had the best year here this year," Sherbin said. "It's been very, very rewarding − really unbelievably rewarding."

Uniting hundreds of students across generations, the flower – a rose which she can draw in under 3.5 seconds – brought the children and Sherbin a bit of joy in the every day.

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She would leave it on chalkboards and whiteboards, on slips of paper and yearbooks. If she were a graffiti artist, the rose would be her tag.

"I've drawn the rose so many times that I can draw it faster than I can say my name," Sherbin said.

Students remember the flower with fondness – a happy memory from their childhood. Some even try to copy her rose, but none get it right, she said.

"My students try, especially the boys − they try to match my rose," she said. "And they think that all you have to do is move your hand real fast. They end up with these big blobs. I tell them, you'll find your own thing − and that makes it yours."

Michelle Gruber, who finished fifth grade at Old York in 2008, said the rose was more than just a doodle to the students.

"We all loved Ms. Sherbin and looked forward to her visiting our classrooms and teaching us," Gruber said. "Ms. Sherbin brought comfort and warmth to our classrooms and the rose symbolized that as well. Walking into a classroom and seeing a rose drawn on the board brought students happiness and we felt like Ms. Sherbin was there."

When Sherbin walked into any classroom, students immediately would ask her to draw a rose on the board.

"Then it became a game," Gruber said. "We would time her to see how quickly she could draw it − 3.5 seconds was the fastest − then we would ask her to draw the rose with her eyes closed, with her right hand, left hand, and of course she always amazed us when she drew it perfectly each time."

And as soon as students received their yearbooks, the first thing they would do "is run to Ms. Sherbin’s room to get her famous rose signature."

"The rose was like the Batman symbol," Gruber said. "It was iconic at school. Everyone knew the rose represented Ms. Sherbin and we felt her presence just by the rose being drawn in one of her books, on the classroom board, on graded assignments and in our yearbooks."

At the end of the school year, Sherbin also would draw what she calls "the big bloom." A larger rose with more petals that opened. At that point the students knew that they had bloomed as well.

"When they did something really big, they got 'the big bloom.' It morphed into a real full rose," she said.

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Like Sherbin, the rose soon will retire from the classroom. But she hopes to bring it with her in her post-teaching plans, many of which involve art. The rose has already been inscribed on jewelry − earrings and a pendant.

"I'm an artist. I have a degree in art," Sherbin said. "But I never used it. I have done some cakes and done some artwork on cakes. I've done ceramics. People have asked me to create logos with original artwork. So the rose will end up somewhere and people will know the work is mine."

Sherbin also hopes to become more involved with politics and lobby for education issues.

"I want to use my background in education to bring that forth more an as issue," she said. "Either running for office, volunteering or working for somebody with education as my topic of interest."

The pandemic was hard on Sherbin. Early on, she contracted COVID as did her parents. She had been spending more time with them during the quarantine and all three had it at the same time. Her father died.

Dr. Sherbin, who had a private practice, also was a former physician for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority in East Brunswick. Sherbin and her mother recovered, though she has developed long COVID.

"That was very hard," she said. "We had one of the first Zoom funerals. We are Jewish − there was no shiva. We were just sitting here by ourselves. This is not what we do. When my father passed away people dropped off food, but nobody could come in. There was a parade of cars, driving by with 'I love you' signs and signs that said all kinds of things for my father. And he was acknowledged by Governor [Phil] Murphy. My, what a reputation he had."

After her father's death, Sherbin sold her house in Branchburg and moved in with her mother in West Windsor. Besides the toll long COVID has taken on Sherbin's health, it is the new commute that has made now the right time to retire. Now she can focus on things she never had time for before. You have to start living while you can still live, she said.

"I don't think I can stop working with children though," she said. "I probably will tutor or run an after-school program, maybe for 'gifted and talented' − I taught that class for 18 years − maybe doing activities that stretch people's minds. I have lots and lots of plans. I just don't know what to do with them yet or which one to do first."

email: cmakin@gannettnj.com

Cheryl Makin is an award-winning features and education reporter for MyCentralJersey.com, part of the USA Today Network. Contact: Cmakin@gannettnj.com or @CherylMakin. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ teacher's hand-drawn legacy plants seeds for her students