A half-hour late here, but...this is for Friday....Today I am thankful for: good teachers! For some reason I was thinking about my past teachers today, probably because of thinking about being in high school when President Kennedy was assassinated. Those who particularly stand out for me are: Mrs. Machoski (dont think thats spelled right, but thats the way its pronounced), my first grade teacher, a pretty red head, was always kind and gentle with us..... Mrs. Alves, my fourth grade teacher, an older, grandma-like, hugging and loving teacher who always tried to pull this shy little girl a little more out of her shell..... Mr. Monsieur, my sixth grade teacher, a fun, joking teacher, yet firm when he needed to be-we always had to write stories with each weeks group of spelling words and get up in front of the class on Fridays and read those stories. School had already been going for several weeks when I started in his class after our move, so the shy little girl who was now a shy older girl was an even shy-er new-girl in the school. Mr. Monsieur worked with my shyness, always encouraging me with the Friday oral readings, besides encouraging me in writing and art, which I loved..... My Guidance teacher in 7th grade, whose face I can see and name I cannot remember - she, too, cared much about her students. She talked me into joining the drama club, telling me it would help a lot in giving me confidence. I finally joined, mostly to please her; though I really wished I could come out of my shell - that this might help me. It did, for awhile. I was in an Agatha Christie play and had a part, though short (I was a maid) and a couple of lines. I was terrified but ended up not being quite as nervous as I feared Id be when speaking my lines because, I concluded, I wasnt me in the play. I was someone else. In that play I first heard of and spoke the word vichyoise (look it up!). :) Then, before the next school year started we moved again (my father was in the Navy and was transferred to Virginia). I was once again the new girl in class. I cant remember the name of the next and last teacher I remember liking so much, but she was my Government teacher, 10th grade I think. I found Government class a bit boring except for current events, and the current events of the time were anything but boring: the Civil Rights issues-in Virginia, the South! The Virginia schools had just reopened after being closed for a year rather than integrate. We had one black student in the Government class, Beverly, and I remember our teacher telling us that we would be discussing the current Civil Rights issues and Beverly could give us insight on the issues that so concerned her. And we did. We discussed the car burnings, the white and black water fountains, the whites only restrooms and restaurants, the sit-ins, the cowardly Klu Klux Klan and their cross burnings-a group I had never heard of before moving to Virginia, etc. My Government teacher allowed discussions on these hot topics, letting us know clearly where SHE stood: against the stupidity of racism, for freedom and equal rights for all. She helped me reinforce and clarify my own feelings on all that was happening that year: freedom and equal rights for ALL. Oh, yes, I am so thankful for good teachers ... for those teachers who not only teach the reading, writing and arithmetic, but also really love and care about their students and show that love and caring in their teaching.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 07:51:41 +0000
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