At
the age of thirteen, I knew one thing for sure; I knew you couldn’t add or
multiply numbers and letters. It didn’t
make sense, and I told him so! My all-boys small elementary school, staffed by
nuns from Canada, taught basic arithmetic.
I hadn’t heard of algebra. It was
my first class on my first day in high school.
I sat in the front row, had a male teacher and there were girls in the room
too. What could go wrong? Then he told me, “one half-hour detention after school for the rest of the week.”
At
the end of the day, I reported as ordered.
George Carnie was a big, driven, and sometimes grouchy man who didn’t
suffer fools, but he spent the entire half-hour that day and the rest of the
week, teaching me about algebra and he helped me understand that 2xN=4 really
does make sense. There were many other
sessions throughout the year. Math
wasn’t my thing, still isn’t. He taught
me how to write formulas for an Excel spreadsheet fifty years before it was invented. I still remember that first day, to this
day. I never told anyone Mr. Carnie
really was a teddy bear.
My
daughter left private industry eleven years ago to become a high school math
teacher (Mr. Carnie would appreciate the irony). She just accepted a job with another school
district. When she posted about her last
day at YVHS, her page lit up with messages from students and fellow teachers
thanking her for her contributions, the help she gave others, and the impact
she had on them. It got me thinking
about great teachers. Everybody has at
least one.
Professor
Massey at the University of Colorado at Boulder wrote a book titled You Are What You Were When. His theory was that students learn values
differently at different stages of life.
Students in middle and high school, especially, need great teachers, not
just to dispense facts, figures and dates, but also to teach and model values, build
character, create passion for life-long learning, and to set people on course
to a life well lived. My high school had
a one-hundred-ten year tradition of strong academics taught by really good
teachers. A few stood out from the good,
the great ones.
Bob
Dickson’s Plane Geometry class covered the usual angles, theorems, postulates,
and proofs. Sprinkled in all that math were
lessons about how to think, how to approach a problem, and how to prove a point. He taught us strategies for life.
From
her wheel chair, Dorothy Clark, our Senior English teacher, wasn’t confined by
the classical curriculum. The usual
senior English subjects; Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Beowulf, Greek and Roman
Mythology, Shakespeare, English Literature, and Grammar were just her clay. She fostered wondering about things, doing research,
constructing good sentences, and being articulate. We all knew that if we remembered half of what
she taught, we would be the better for it. She was as good as they get.
Francis
X Ryan, (“the X stands for X”) knew every student by name, knew what kept them going,
and always had sage advice, usually hidden in humor, slight sarcasm, or some
quote from obscure writers. At his young
age, he was the soul of the faculty, the epitome of the great teacher even if
you never took a class from him. You
could hear him coming down the hall between classes, louder voice when needed,
in a rumpled coat and tie askew. We
dedicated our yearbook to him!
My
dad was an electrician, and I helped him wire houses, but I still wonder if atoms
really do march through copper wire to illuminate bulbs. Science isn’t my thing either. But, Bill Stowe’s passion for Physics and
Chemistry, two courses required for college prep, made them captivating for those
who preferred history and Latin. He was
a young man when he taught us, but no one will forget his skill, passion, and
caring. He built a love of science and
learning for a couple of generations of northeastern Vermonters. The quad, in front the newer buildings on
campus, is named Stowe Green.
Two
teachers had a passion for America’s experiment in self-government and its history
that forms my beliefs and actions today.
George Plummer brought the creation of the country and its struggles to
life for all of us. He believed in Locke’s
propensity for self-rule, Jefferson’s declarations of freedom, and Hamilton and
Madison’s arguments for a federalist system.
Cedrick Pierce Jr’s Problems in American Democracy course nurtured inquisitive
minds that wanted to know more about how our nation works, how people think,
why they believe what they believe, why they vote the way they do. These two men were the reason I became a
Social Studies teacher. I was good at
it, not great. Other career
opportunities lured me away.
These
great teachers influence me today as much as they did back then. Would I remember my first day in high school
if not for a great teacher? My working
life would have been different if not for the love of strategy and problem
solving introduced by my geometry teacher.
Would I love research and the written word as much if not for Miss
Clark? Would I be the political junkie I
am if not for Cedrick Pierce Jr. or a history buff if not for George
Plummer? I had some good teachers in
college too, but those that formed me were my great teachers in high
school.
Who
were your great teachers? Everybody has at
least one!
That’s
where I was when!
