I cannot recall any teacher I did not like...well maybe there was one - he liked to fire his male students across the class-room floor. Indeed in some cases I even love them - my daughter Natalie, my Sister Linda and he son...my nephew... Michael. With not a biased bone in my body I can say all three were (my Sister is retired) or are, great at their chosen profession and their students were / are lucky to be taught by them.
And all of us no doubt have our favourites from our school days. I have three -my grade 6 teacher - Robert 'Bob' Raymond, my grade 9 english teacher Miss Joanne Jones and my grade 11 geography teacher Nancy Stantial. In the case of the latter, at a parent-teacher evening she told my parents that I was most definitely "university material" and being that no one in my family had ever gone to university her statement had a greater impact on me than she could ever imagine.
Bob Raymond was nothing but a character ...from Toronto, fresh out of Teachers' College. For instance, he would hand out detentions like they were going out of style and then permit the offenders to work them off by picking pick weeds in the playground. Our Public School had the most weed-free lawns around. He also roamed quietly around the classroom with a pointer and would sneak up on the unsuspecting student who exhibited poor posture. A sharp stab in the victim's back was all it took. Can you imagine what would have happened to this novice teacher had he tried to do that in today's progressive environment?
And Miss Jones had the ability to read passages from varied literary offerings that would take the listener directly into those pages. What a gift. It was most certainly the beginning of this sport's minded boy's interest in the beauty of literature.
I have never asked my Daughter or my Nephew who their favourite teachers were but will be sure to do so when I see them next. I do though believe I know who was my Sister's or at least who one of them was ...Ms McAuley ... her kindergarten teacher. Am I right Linda?
And you know what - I don't even know my wife's favourite. Better get on that a.s.a.p.
Anyway the bottom-line here is that Teachers perform a very great service to society and even they I suspect, do not always realize what a positive lasting impact they have on the lives of their students.
A Sincere Thank You From The Bottom Of My Heart To You All !!!
Now for a humourous story ...or Not.
In my day, grades 7 thru and including grade 9 were the most eventful and dramatic. Blame it on hormones, if you will.
So here I am sitting in Mrs. Gibson's Grade 8 Class minding my own business when all of a sudden I was hit by a flying piece of chalk or an erasure.
I looked around and there with a big smirk on his face was the Class Troublemaker (C.T.). I won't name him to save the guilty but I suspect my childhood friend Johnny will quickly know who this culprit was.. Of even greater note, C.T. was the first in our class to refuse to stand for God Save The Queen, an essential part of the day's opening. I was shocked more with that than with the chalk...but I digress.
Anyway, I picked up the chalk and was just about ready to fire it back at him when Mrs. Gibson yelled "STOP"...and I did. This was the same woman who could not catch a cold in mid-January but she caught me that morning. C.T. was beside himself with guffaws and what should have been over in a matter of minutes...was not. It went on for months.
Permit me to explain:
Johnny and I grew up in a small town where everyone and I mean everyone, knew everyone else. As it happened then, Mrs. Gibson's son was married to my father's secretary and for the next several months the 'chalk throwing incident' was the prime talk at our table. Well you would have thought I had punched C.T. out ...which between you and me I could have easily done.
In closing, if you have any reminisces about how your teacher(s) positively affected you or any humourous stories from your day to day classroom life, please just let me know and I will try to cover them in one of my future blogs.
In the meantime,
As I See It,
K.D. Bell
