So I read in the paper that today is
World Teachers' Day. In its honour I decided to dedicate this post to some of my most
memorable teachers -- good, bad, or indifferent. Shall we begin?
Grade One: My teacher's name for this year will
not be published as I'm sure it wouldn't be fair. After all, this teacher is a rather dark spot in my memory. On several occasions she singled me out for bad behaviour (usually talking too much) when, in fact, it wasn't just me -- there were usually a group of us that were doing the talking. One time she drew a circle on the chalkboard and told me to keep my nose in it until she told me I could sit down. The circle was higher than the height of my nose, so in order to keep my nose in the circle, I had to stand on my tiptoes. After 10 or 15 minutes, my calf muscles were getting sore, so I lowered myself so I could stand flat-footed. When my teacher noticed that my nose was below the circle, she whacked me on the back of my legs with a wooden pointing stick. Mean, mean, mean!
Grade Two: In complete contrast to my Grade One teacher,
Mrs. Rasmussen was lovely! She was soft-spoken, kind, generous, complimentary and encouraging. She was my saving grace. Without her I'm sure I would never have become the brilliant academic that I am today. HAHA. Okay, so I'm not a brilliant academic, but at least I decided school was a pretty cool place to be. My previous year's experience had me wanting to never go to school again.
Grade 3: This year I had a teacher that was quite fun.
Mrs. Blummel enjoyed music and had special little songs to sing for special occasions. One song I particularly remember was sung whenever a student wore a pair of newly-purchased shoes. That child got to walk back and forth in front of the classroom while the rest of the class sang:
New shoes, new shoes; squeaky, shiny new shoes.
Some are black and some are white
Reds and yellows, greens and blues.
New shoes, new shoes; squeaky, shiny new shoes.
Of course getting this special recognition made us all try to convince our parents to buy us new shoes. In hind sight I wonder if Mrs. Blummel had purchased stock in some shoe company.
Grade 4: This year something new happened -- the introduction of a
male teacher. He was young, handsome, smart, and absolutely dreamy! His name was
Mr. Hatch, and he had me eating out of the palm of his hands.
Grade 5: Mr. Parks had recently come from Australia. It was the first time in my life that I had heard anyone speak with an Australian accent, and I loved it. What I loved even more was his infectious love of music! He brought his guitar to school and led our singing class in some truly great songs. I will always remember him for choosing songs that were so fast, that not only was his guitar-strumming hand keeping up with the speed of light, but he
sang so fast that his mouth produced substantial amounts of foamy saliva at the side of his lips. We all thought it was great!
Grade 7: In grade 7 we entered junior high school, and had a different teacher for every subject. I had two memorable teachers this year.
Mr. Cooper taught us science. He was a gentle man, and the father of one of our classmates. Sadly the thing I remember most about him is that he died that year, and we were all excused from school to attend his funeral. I always get a lump in my throat when I think of him.
Mrs. Collis taught art. She was young, pretty, new to town, and wore the shortest "hot pants" that I had ever seen to that point in my life. (Remember, this was the early 70's) I'm pretty sure she shocked most of the people in my small, conservative town. And most likely worried the married women who sent their school-teaching husbands to work each morning.
Grade 9: Mr. Petrie was our drama teacher. His methods were quite avent garde for the day, and because of it we thought he was pretty cool. He had us involved in dramatic exercises such as acting out hand-to-hand combat in slow motion, performing in air bands (before it even had a name), and flying on imaginary "magic carpets" at the end of class, where we "soared above the clouds" for relaxation. When one boy got a nose bleed, Mr. Petrie convinced most of the class that it was because of the "high altitude" of the magic carpet. Haha! I'm happy to say that I was one of the few who didn't fall for it.
High School: Just a quick smattering of a few memorable teachers during my three years of high school:
Miss Kopitske (sewing teacher) -- She had incredibly
good hearing, and ate popcorn with more gusto than I
could ever hope to describe.
Mr. Kennard (band teacher) -- Often when he conducted
an especially invigorating piece of music, he became so
engrossed that his face would become
beet red, so he
received the nickname of "Beets". Which, I just now
realized, is actually a pretty good nickname for a music
conductor, if you changed the spelling. (
"Beats")
Mr. Leavitt (math teacher) -- Math was not my best
subject, and over the years I've had nightmares about Mr.
Leavitt hunting me down and asking me to turn in my
overdue math assignments.
Mr. King (French teacher) -- If I had've know how much
I enjoyed Mr. King (and French class), I would have
started taking French in grade 10 instead of grade 12.
It could have made my high school experience even
more enjoyable. And my GPA a little higher.
Overall, I think I had some pretty great teachers. I'm sure it wasn't always easy for them. I'm sure we tried their patience. But I'm also sure that they were hard workers who tried to live decent lives and teach us to do the same. I learned many good things from them, both professionally and personally. My hat goes off to all the teachers who've made a positive impact on a child's life, especially this child.
Dixie
