The Riley Rules: A Life of Teaching, Faith, and Finding Purpose

In this inspiring episode, MaryAnn Riley reflects on her unexpected journey from aspiring doctor to master educator, mentor, and national Teacher of the Year finalist. With warmth and wisdom, she shares how her life's calling evolved through divine guidance, academic persistence, and the support of her family and community.

MaryAnn opens up about her legacy as a mentor to countless student teachers, her influence on future generations, and how deeply she believes in the power of reading, thinking, and reevaluating life’s direction. She recounts pivotal moments—from teaching in Panama to supporting young CNAs exploring their futures—and emphasizes that our early plans may not always reflect our true calling.

With moving nods to her faith, her 61-year marriage, and her earliest political involvement during the Eisenhower campaign, this episode captures the essence of MaryAnn's philosophy: embrace your journey, stay open to change, and always uplift others. Her heartfelt words offer encouragement for anyone questioning their path or searching for meaning in the everyday moments of life.

Transcript

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Okay, I'll change my major. And I changed my major to teaching. And even though I had a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor and a Master of Science. And then I became a master teacher. And I was one of the finalists for the Teacher of the Year for the United States. I mean who's doing education and things of that type too. And so she says, 'See, she says you weren't meant to be a doctor.' Although my parents would come in and ask me, 'What's the matter with Rodney?' You know, this type of thing? No, get your opinion first and then I'll take him to the doctor. But I mean this is the relationship I had with my students and my parents and then. So I was a master teacher. I had many student teachers. So I've got many student teachers out there that have been excellent teachers. That have followed the the riley rules of teaching and these are some of the things jack that i wanted to show that the young people whatever you decide at 18 or 10 or 12 may not be at 20 25 or 30. And this is what I was talking with some of the CNA's here too, that they were talking about some of their wanting to maybe switch from this to this. I said excellent idea and I said Eric is writing this book and I said, and I said the purpose of this book is for future generations to, and not only for future but even present generations to get them to a read to think those are the three things, are you recording this? Yeah, I am. I already got that in the book, she told me about that today. I got a whole chapter for that for you. I said these are some of the things that he has stimulated me to think about various things too and I said when he asked me about dedications I told him I said I can't pick out any one person or any group of people, I said because it has been a progression all of my life and I said any time from the time that I entered college to the time I moved to Panama actually was the teacher for my child. He began to give me tips things that you. Would not expect, because I didn't believe in God as a school person, starting in high school. All of a sudden, I got up there and I studied; when I came home, and when I come home, I think about my two children-okay, you know. Maybe this is something that I'm boasting, but you know, there's a lot of feelings and there's a lot of artists and stories to explore throughout that community, and that's theって not to miss. There's a lot of things your kids are going to see-you know, there's a lot of different things you can see or smile; I'm sure you're leading them home back to some of the things that I had learned over the time because of my reading. All this research before when I was wanting to be a doctor and knowing how to do things. I learned some of these things. So while I was in Panama, I did live with this baby, it was a healthy little baby, and the mother survived and so did I and so did the baby. And I thought, I've been very, very blessed, Jack, to have all these people help me along the way. Without God, I couldn't do them anything though. And for Eric to get me stimulated to talk so much, I'm like diarrhea of the mouth because I want to get everything in. But I said, I have to owe it to my parents. They gave me a very good background. I've been married to my husband for 61 years and he has been a strong supporter of me all of my life. No matter what I decided to do, from going off to Hawaii to school while he stayed home to take care of Mike, or whether I went off to Europe with my friend Zard to do some of these other things, or to go to all these conventions along the way and meet. See, I've met almost every presidential candidate from Dwight David Eisenhower to now. And my first campaign was Dwight David Eisenhower's campaign. I was in high school. So, as I say, he stimulated me to these points of where I cannot point out to any one person. And I wanted to ask you something like this too. You know, on this, I said, I wanted to say, there's a wind beneath my wings. Somebody pointed out that that may not fly because there may be copyrights. Copyrights. Yeah, I was thinking about that. You know, that too. So I, and that's why. I gave you that other portion here, the support of all my family and friends in all of my endeavors. Does that fly okay? And so what I did was, look at the dedication. I rewrote the dedication. Can you pull that up? How big's that? I rewrote the dedication after you told me the lecture. I got talking to a friend of mine that was talking to Peter. And I said. That's the dedication. Yeah. Oh, it's beautiful.