Jo Beth Gonzalez never wanted to be a teacher.
As a matter of fact, even in college she just wanted to continue performing in children’s plays.
But after 37 years as an educator, she has taken to heart advice she received while on travels to India:
“Parents give their children their bodies, but teachers give the children their lives.”
Gonzalez, or Dr. G as she is affectionately called, was the third Inspirational Educator honored this
month by the Bowling Green Kiwanis Club. The Kiwanis Club has dedicated February as the month to honor
outstanding Bowling Green City Schools teachers.
Gonzalez is the drama teacher at Bowling Green High School, a post she has held for 25 years.
In its sixth year, the club’s awards were given to three educators who were selected by their peers as
having exceptional impact on their students. Paul Reinhart, at Crim Elementary, and Josh Iler, at the
middle school, also were honored.
“I think inspirational educators teach because they are inspired,” Gonzalez told club members Thursday.

She believes that the inspiration for what she does comes from her love of theater.
The theater bug bit her when she was 5 and the itch hasn’t gone away. She played the role of a carrot,
and when her kindergarten classmates laughed at a line she delivered, “I was hooked.”
Like Iler talked about last week, Gonzalez admitted teaching was never on her radar.
She was in college and didn’t know what she wanted to do in her life – the intent had been to join a
children’s theater company and perform for young audiences. It was her husband Al who suggested a
teaching certificate.
“How will that help me make a difference?” Gonzalez said. “I was afraid a career in teaching would stick
me in a box. I thought of teacher stereotypes and I didn’t want to be labeled one.
“Little did I know that my teaching certificate would become my ticket to a career of opportunities.”
She earned a Bachelor of Science in education with a speech major and English minor and as many theater
credits as she could fit in. She taught English, public speaking, and directed plays after school for
seven years in Ohio. Gonzalez admitted to making mistakes and becoming fearful that she would lose the
respect of her students.
When the opportunity to earn a Master of Fine Arts in directing arose, she quit teaching and became a
graduate student at the University of Minnesota.
“I vowed that I wouldn’t teach high school again unless I taught only theater classes in a school with
quality theater facilities,” she said.
Gonzalez landed at College Station, Texas, where she freelanced as a theater teacher specialist for the
Texas Arts Council and taught public speaking at Texas A&M University
Opportunity came knocking again, and she packed up and returned to Ohio. She wanted to earn a Ph.D. in
theater at Bowling Green State University.
F. Scott Regan, now an emeritus faculty member in the theater and film department, asked her to teach a
summer theater workshop to high school students. One student told her that the high school teacher had
retired and the position was still unfilled.
Thinking a teaching job would bring in more income than a graduate stipend, she interviewed with
Principal Eric Myers and got the job.
Gonzalez learned to write academically and developed a dissertation project about a production the drama
club created. She noticed that very few high school teachers were writing action-based research.
“I write because it helps me process challenges and unpack successes,” she said. “The more I teach, the
more I find to write about. The more I write, the more I value teaching. Fear of a box and stereotype
are gone.”
Over the years, she has been a leading advocate for theater education and has earned the reputation for
addressing challenging subjects of special relevance to her students, including eating disorders, teen
suicide, bullying and human trafficking.
She is the author of two books: “Temporary Stages” and “Temporary Stages II: Critically-Oriented Drama
Education,” which have inspired theater teachers to provide audition feedback rather than posting cast
lists.
What inspires her every morning to open room 117 – also known as the “Theatre Studio?”
Her students inspire her as they go on artistic adventures together.
Last month, the drama club held a Flip the Script fundraiser where they were the directors and adults
were the actors.
Her colleagues inspire her, as do the friends she has made through memberships in state and national
organizations.
In 2015, she was named the 2014-15 Theatre Educator of the Year given by the Ohio Educational Theatre
Association.
In 2017, she was inducted into the Educational Theatre Association: Ohio Chapter Hall of Fame at the
State Thespian Conference.
She is inspired by her experience with Peace Lutheran Church’s tween/teen drama team.
For nine years, while her daughters were in middle and high school, she led a faith-based drama group at
the church, where she noted using theater to explore stories in a faith-based institution in not that
different from dwelling into the themes of a public-school play.
She is inspired by her experiences as a world traveler.
In 2015, she spoke about U.S. theater education in Seoul, South Korea. In 2017, she took students to
London and this summer to Italy. Last year, she was a member of Teachers for Global Classrooms sponsored
by the U.S. State Department which sent her to India.
“These experiences help me globalize instruction and give me strategies for connecting students with the
wider world.”
For those students who don’t pick theater as a career, Gonzalez hopes the drama program inspires them to
become the very best doctors, lawyers, race-car drivers, athletic-wear designers, stay-at-home moms and
dads, or any other path their lives take them on.
After winning state awards and being chosen to represent the U.S. nationally, Gonzalez said this award
means a lot, “to be recognized by those who you interact with … and to be a part of this long list of
other educators, it means as much if not more.”
Kiwanis President Jeff Orlowski said it is awesome the club can honor teachers “that have such a huge
impact on our kids.”