What keeps America's oldest teacher going at 102?

Agnes Zhelesnik didn't start working at The Sundance School until she turned 80.

Agnes Zhelesnik is believed to be the oldest active teacher in America. (File photo)

NORTH PLAINFIELD -- At 102 years old, Agnes Zhelesnik is believed to be America's oldest active teacher and the word retirement isn't in her vocabulary, according to a report in People Magazine.

Zhelesnik, who celebrated her birthday Tuesday, has been teaching sewing and cooking at The Sundance School in North Plainfield since the age of 80, the report said. She hand-sews aprons for each of her students and feels that what she teaches her students will assist them as they go through life.

"In school here they call me granny, and I'm just a natural granny. I know that they love me!" said Zhelesnik.

Zhelesnik, who teaches full-time, is driven to school each day by her daughter, Agnes Arakelian, who also teaches at the private pre-kindergarten through Grade 5 school. She recalled growing up when students didn't have the amenities they have now, the report said.

"When I was a young girl, school was different - completely different," said Zhelesnik. "We didn't have the equipment they have today - computers, television, cameras. We didn't even have an inside toilet."

Zhelesnik, whose husband of 61 years died in 1999, said she has no plans to retire, the report said. The children keep her going.

"My favorite part of teaching here is taking care of the children," she said.

As previously reported on NJ.com, Zhelesnik was born on Jan. 12, 1914, in Thomas, West Virginia, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the middle of five children born to Lithuanian immigrants.

In the third grade, Zhelesnik's family moved to Bayonne where her father worked in the Borax factory.

A stay-at-home mom, Zhelesnik, a mother of three, always enjoyed sewing and cooking. She never smoked or drank, but in recent years admits to treating herself to an occasional glass of wine.

In 1995, after not having worked for almost 60 years, Arakelian told her that The Sundance School was looking for someone to work part-time, taking care of students during a two-hour lunch period.

That part-time job soon became a labor of love and she hasn't left the building since.