the shoulders of giants . . . and not-so-giants (part 2)

Elementary School (continued)

•Mr. K. - 6th grade. Crazy science teacher and square dance caller, who gave me an opportunity to teach something to the class once. This was the year that all the sixth graders went to "Camp Isaac Jogues", which felt like Boy Scout summer camp to me, but with classmates.
•Mrs. M. - 6th grade. I was eating lunch in her classroom when the Challenger exploded. I remember that she really loved social studies and anthropology, and really missed them now that she was a teacher.
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•Mrs. B. - 7th grade. Invited a dozen science students to her house every Friday to practice for the “Science Olympiad”. I remember being impressed by that, and also lucky that we got to see a teacher's house! (Her husband had an Apple II-something with a modem. That was a big deal back then. I wouldn't see my first modem for another year or two.)
•Mr. C. - 7th grade. (We actually called him "Mr. C". The most organized and logical-minded teacher I’ve ever had. He made us write in four colors and do everything his way, and I hated history again, but he showed me that good teachers do things differently. I've actually found myself using a lot of his classroom management techniques, and they really work. He's a principal now.
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•Mr. T. - 8th grade. An old bulldog of a teacher, who once said to a kid “Door or window. Choose.” (Meaning that he was getting thrown out of class and was being invited to pick his own manner of exit.) I remember that he taught math to kids who sucked at math. I remember that he wrote our school's theme song. And I remember that I was afraid of this man, but didn't respect him.
•Mrs. P. - 8th grade. I remember really falling in love with English and writing in her class. My friend John and I would come up with ridiculously long and run-on sentences and then try to diagram them with her. (Yes, you see where the geek in me was born. By this time, we had an IBM PCjr. computer at home and a 1200 baud modem, and I was dialing bulletin boards every afternoon, posting messages and learning about computers.)
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•Tom & Chris - My Boy Scout leaders. Taught me to use my head and be independent. Took us on camping trips every month. Took us to Canada for a week-long canoe trip and the Alleghenies for backpacking. They were both strong and fit, had done all sorts of adventures, were famous for telling "puke stories" around the campfire, managed to cook gourmet meals over the fire in the middle of nowhere, and commanded nothing but respect from me and my mates. They were the epitome of everything that was cool and manly. I wanted to be just like them when I grew up. They also taught me most of what I know about how selling and teaching are similar. (I believe they are both still taking kids on adventures, and I wonder what those adventures are like now.)
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•Mr. S. - Band Director - My first private saxophone teacher and the school's band director. Very dedicated, but a little frazzled and burned-out, it seemed. I remember him taking a survey of the students that had questions like, "Do you think I'm too strict?" That didn't seem like a good move to me back then, and I think he lost a lot of respect for it. He also wouldn't let us wear sunglasses for our jazz band concert, which we thought was dumb, but he was standing on principle, which I can understand now.

to be continued . . .

Posted: Sat - January 31, 2004 at 11:24 AM

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the shoulders of giants . . . and not-so-giants (part 2)

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