World Teachers' Day !!!
These are just random thoughts and I am sure I am missing some of the innovative educators who positively impacted my life.
Mr. Suderman. Put the pal in principal. He got me through high school and retired when I graduated. I adored him. I was often called into his office. One time I was in trouble and quite frankly the punishment he administered was brilliant. It was so good that I had wished I had been suspended instead. The other times that I was called to the principal's office was because he just wanted to catch up and visit. But, I think what best sums up Mr. Suderman is something that happened after I was done school. I was talking to my dad and he told me that he ran into John Suderman at the mall and they went for coffee. I told him I wasn't aware that he knew Mr. Suderman and asked him how he knew him. I heard a pause on the other line of the phone and my dad said, "well, I had a kid that went to his high school." I think that summarizes my education in schools in Dauphin. It worked because the system welcomed and thrived with parental partnership.
Mr. Cronk. Chip Cho, Brent, Isabel and I sat in that order in a row in English 300. We were a handful. We started out trying to play a little prank on Mr. Cronk and our antics continued for the whole year. Well, the prank turned out to me on us because we developed sincere and profound affection for Mr. Cronk. He taught us rather late in his illustrious career but he not only dealt with us he handled us with thought and humour. He taught me not to take myself so seriously, any situation is better with humour, how to foster and maintain relationships, and life is good and be authentic. Despite all of these life lessons, I think that I can actually recite Hamlet and if you want to know anything about The Crucible, I'm your go-to.
Mr. Bilowus taught me social studies and a valuable lesson about how our actions impact others and we need to be mindful of unintended consequences. Mr. Tkach made calculus fun but my favorite memory is him rolling up his polyester black pants to his thighs to participate in our Sexy Legs contest over lunch period. Never be afraid to have fun. You don't reduce people's opinion of you by being silly, you actually enhance it and you are teaching people to be balanced. Dee Dee Pelechaty (I wonder what we called her....Miss, Ms) taught me the importance of being a free spirit. Mr. Innerst taught me French and also taught me, while substance is important, there is nothing wrong with having a little style. Ms. Laporte didn't teach me anything in PE but she taught me that knowing someone in one setting doesn't mean you know the person and I am grateful for her being my make-up artist in our drama production. P. Best wasn't successful in teaching me typing but she taught me that I have the potential to being a horrible person and that is not a good look on me. Essentially, I enjoyed high school and only have good memories. It was largely because of my extraordinary teachers.
Junior High transformed my life. I went from a painfully shy young girl to being an overly confident young girl. Mr. and Mrs. Zimmer are just amazing humans and they impacted my life deeply. Mostly, they led by example. They didn't pretend to be perfect (but they were) and they certainly taught me that if you are going to do something, you should do it all the way. I am not the least bit bitter that Mr. Zimmer showed me that I could never make a living as a writer because that was just common sense mathematics.
I learned a valuable lesson about responsibility from Mr. Belinsky in Grade 8 social studies. Let's just say that he taught the political system. He tried but he couldn't help promoting his personal views which diverged with my own deeply-rooted political views typical of any child in grade 8. I tried but I couldn't help but tell him he was wrong every time he made any reference to politics. So, neither of us were campaigning to be President of the other's fan club. Anyway, he had a rule that if you got between 50-60 on a test, you had to have the test signed by one parent. If you got below 50 on a test, you have to have the test signed by two parents. He must have given us a lot of tests because it didn't affect my overall grade, but I got 46 on one test. To this day, I don't know what happened. Getting my parents to sign this was pretty devastating. My father asked, "is this issue that I need to be concerned about?" and I said no and that was the last we talked about it. My mother over-reacted or maybe re-acted appropriately. She was upset and concerned and couldn't wait to talk to him at the next parent-teacher conference. (Parents and teachers didn't talk outside of those interviews at that time.) Time had passed and I had recovered academically in social studies, however, my mom found that Mr. Belinsky was still devastated about this test. He taught social studies to seven grade 8 classes of about 30 everyday yet he was personally affected by one student's failure in one test. He apologized profusely to my mom as he felt the only conclusion was that he didn't teach that material well and it was a wake-up call for him to do more preparation. It wasn't true and he was a great teacher and this incident proves it.
Miss Macleod taught us invaluable lessons about home economics. I knew how to read a label decades before this was even talked about. Not only that, she exemplified grace. Imagine teaching home economics to grade 9 classes. She deserved a medal.
Then there was Mr. Nadolny. Well, books need to be written about him. The best way to describe him as a teacher was that he made it look easy. I have come to reflect that everything he did was extremely calculated and, quite frankly, brilliant. No way to quantify the impact he had on my life but I can give you a clue. Every single day that I went to school in Grade 9 involved a conversation with my father about the Bonus Question. What was it? Any clues released? Who made guesses and what were they? I bought a book on the subject so you can read and find out the answer. The answer to the very first bonus question was Grey Owl and my father never got over not knowing it. He didn't always tell me the answer when he knew it but I also remember that we ordered chinese food when I got Bib Label Lithiated Lemon Lime Soda correctly. Talk about bringing education home.
I went to Henderson Elementary School 1.0. Some might have found it unusual to be in elementary school and attending a group organ class that included your Principal, but, this was Dauphin. It turned out that he was human and had some demons but he was unabashedly unafraid to learn a new instrument later in his life. Mrs. Cooper taught me a lot at the Yahama School of music and some of it had to do with playing the organ. Mostly, she taught me that I could never beat a certain Janice in a music festival. Apparently, the key to success is that you have to practice. Speaking of music, how is it possible that I have memories of Mrs. Audrey Dowler in every single grade. How did she have the energy to inspire a love of music in the whole Parkland? How was she always smiling and how did she always look so good?
Some of my favorite teachers were Miss Houston, Miss Prestayko, and Mrs. King. Miss Houston had so much class that she could have taught Jackie Kennedy things. She was the first person, outside of my family, that made me feel that I not only mattered but that I was special. Mrs. King taught her students that a sentence didn't exist that we couldn't parse. I also have special memories of our relationship outside of school that evolved because of school. There is no way that I can convey how amazing Miss Prestayko was other than to share that every play date I had in grade 4, we played school. Everyone wanted to play Miss Prestayko.
I also feel I need to mention Mrs. Goodhand. She was a public health nurse and was never formally my teacher but taught me a lot in a very short period of time. I was lucky enough to partner with her daughter for my only science project in Grade 5. It literally was the best science project in the world. Mrs. Goodhand did it. Down to putting brown and yellow shelf paper on our display. She did everything, however, that didn't take away from my learning. Trust me, if you are playing trivia and the topics are either penicillin or Sir Alexander Fleming, you want me on your team. I know it. It turns out it is impossible for parents to do their children's school for them. The kids learn anyway.
Another reason that I know that my education was exceptional is that so many of people who I went to school with were inspired to make education their careers. It is great to have facebook to see how they have soared. A few years ago, I attended the celebration of life of Douglas Kutcher. Talk about a life well lived and integral in his life was his teaching career. Apparently, he was the favorite teacher of every student he met. Imaginative. Innovative. Inspirational. Those words described his career as a teacher. I know where he got that from.
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