Maybe it was being downsized after the sale of the former Continental Bank and recognizing the signs, but James Shrigley, longtime banker, decided it was time to hang it up. Unlike many men in their mid-50s, Shrigley saw the writing on the wall as opportunity and not a chute to early retirement.

Shrigley, of suburban Schaumburg, had been with Continental for 15 years, and was a vice president for nine years with Mitsubishi, which merged with the Bank of Tokyo last year. There was no mistaking the signs, according to Shrigley.

"My section was being eliminated," he said. "Because of the merger, they had two of everything."

Rather than wait for the inevitable, Shrigley approached his manager and asked about a buyout. It would pay him for 27 weeks, and might help him open a window to a new future.

"I always had been involved with young people," said Shrigley, who is divorced. "I helped raise three children, was a leader in the YMCA’s Indian Guides and Princesses. I was a Sunday School teacher. I decided that I would like to work with kids full-time, and make a career out of doing what I had done as a volunteer."

However, since he only had 27 weeks severance he knew he had to hit the ground running.

Shrigley connected with DePaul’s School of Education, which has a program for professionals who want to make a career change.

"I talked to DePaul on Thursday and Friday, and by Monday I was in class," he said.

Since 1989, DePaul’s School of Education has offered classes to returning students to meet state certification requirements.

Charles Doyle, assistant dean of the School of Education, said the program is a success.

"These students tend to be highly focused and committed to the task of gaining teacher certification," said Doyle. "They are more mature and experienced than undergraduate students, and bring that maturity and background to their studies.

"My experience with these students is that they are serious, intelligent and committed," Doyle said. "As a rule, they are altruistic and want to ‘make a difference’ in society and the world by being effective teachers.

"They have thought long and hard about making a career change and the need to make significant financial and time commitments to the teacher preparation program," he said. "Because the program is at the graduate level, we are able to structure it more closely to minimum certification requirements making it less expensive even though graduate credits cost more." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show Shrigley is not alone. In 1995, there were more than 1.7 million displaced workers over 50 years old.

When he finishes his degree, Shrigley will be qualified to teach kindergarten through the ninth grade. Shrigley is currently completing his student teaching in Crystal Lake and hopes to be certified in July. He will continue to work on a master’s degree.

"My incentive for going into teaching is to make a difference," said Shrigley. "A lot of things that I was doing at the bank didn’t have a lot of meaning.

"It is exciting, rewarding work," Shrigley said. "The students have a certain expression when they understand the subject--‘I get it.’ For me that is very rewarding."

He hopes to find a teaching position this fall.

"The feedback that I have received is that being a man in elementary education is a plus," he said.

What about retiring?

"I am going with this for a while," he said. "I come from a work ethic. My father worked all his life."

And if that change is not enough, Shrigley is getting remarried this July to Margaret Dover, a fourth grade teacher in District 54.