Hunt for Knowledge: Earnhart keeps students curious

Jill Earnhart, enrichment teacher at Crabapple Lane Elementary, inspires lifelong learning in her Cardinals. 

The enrichment teachers at the school get one day a week with each grade. On that grade’s day, all of the instruction is with the enrichment teachers, with the students doing specials, recess, and lunch with their homeroom. 

They have their own gifted standards that implement critical and creative thinking, resource skills, communication skills, developing a sense of self, and logical thinking skills. It integrates grade-level standards in an enriched environment, and students are able to add their input to the process. 

“We do foster what their curiosities are,” said Earnhart. 

Earnhart knew pretty early on she wanted to be a teacher. She toyed with the idea of being a pediatrician or a marine biologist, but she was always interested in instruction, whether it was through babysitting, water safety classes, or 4-H clubs. 

“In all facets, education was always my draw,” she remembered. 

She started teaching right out of college, but took a break when she moved to Maryland and started a family. After she moved back to Georgia when her daughter was in the 5th grade, she was ready to return to full-time teaching. She went to the same church as Crabapple Lane’s then-principal Doe Evans, who was hiring. 

Evans used the motto “Once a Cardinal, always a Cardinal,” and Earnhart fell in love with the school community. With more than 20 years at the school, she was a 5th grade teacher for 8 years, then one each in 1st and 3rd grade before finding her home with the enrichment program. 

“I love that we’re a family,” she said. “We all want what’s best for the kids. We work together to do that. We support each other in that goal, and the community comes together to support that.” 

When she’s not inside at school, she loves doing anything outside with her own family. That even includes a fun hobby as amateur cryptologists. Sometimes they’ll hike in the North Georgia mountains looking for signs of Bigfoot. 

“We just love to hike. If we say we’re hunting for Bigfoot, it’s a good excuse for a hike. If I happen to run into him, I’m going to be running the other way I can promise you that,” she joked. 

Earnhart is a lifetime learner, and her goal is to create lifetime learners. 

“I want every student that enters my classroom to love learning as much as I do,” said Earnhart. “If my kids can leave my classroom always questioning, always curious, then I think that I’ve done my job. When they leave my class, every single class, I tell them I have enjoyed you and I have learned so much from you. I hope that they can say the same thing.” 

“The Honor Role,” an official podcast for Fayette County Public Schools, features employees, rotating through key stakeholders, including teachers, staff, nurses, custodians, cafeteria workers, and bus drivers. Join us as we dive in and learn about their journeys, their inspirations, and their whys.

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