Teachers That Inspire

Like most families with young children, this week is set aside to ramp up for the beginning of the school year and for the increase in extra-curricular activity level which always takes place in the Autumn. School supplies, new "indoor" shoes, new jeans for my son who seems to have grown 6 inches over the summer and now has a closet full of pants suitable for floodwater levels only, new outfits for my fashionista daughter going into her last year of middle school...........bookbags, lunch boxes, lunch supplies all have to be purchased and/or organized.

Throughout the excitable meanderings that include: "I hope so and so is in my class," and "I hope I don't get so and so for a teacher," and "I think I'll wear this outfit on the first day of school (the 15th one displayed by my daughter in one morning........the cast-offs thrown on her floor), I am struck by the familiarity of the conversation. We have all been there..........the anticipation of the new school year............ the determination that this year you would stay on top of the homework and your binders would remain organized .............. the feeling the you get when starting a new year, "fresh with no mistakes" as Anne Shirley would say .............. the hope that your best friend was going to be in your class ........... and the tentative fear that you were going to end up with the teacher from hell.

Oh, we all had a few of them boys oh boys..................... and I'm pretty sure that if we pooled our descriptions, they would be eerily similar ......... the stand outs? The ones who lost their temper 10 times a day, who were disorganized and disinterested in trying more effective facilitating techniques than lecturing to 8 year olds, who would punish the whole class with "put your heads on your desk and don't move for 15 minutes" over a minor issue with one kid, who would make even Phys Ed boring..........

Then, there are the uniquely disgusting teachers from our past that for whatever reason you were the target. Mine was a Math teacher in high school who was a salivating letch and who spent most of the classtime trying to see down my top. I also had a homeroom teacher in Grade 7 who was a volunteer firefighter and amateur photographer. Believe it or not, he would bring photos in of burnt out homes to scare us with.

Oh, then there was Mr. Chadwick, a certifiable whacko who taught music class in Grade 8. During one memorable day as he was teaching a group of disinterested kids "76 Trombones" for the umpteenth time, he stopped the class, half of whom were not singing and just mouthing the words as a way to drive him into a delirious frothing, to confront me, who was singing. In front of the whole class, he barked me out and sent me out to the hall. It was the one and only time that I had been sent out to the hall...... I was not a shit disturber, but I did try to stand up to him in class to inform him that I was singing.........must have been my tone and look of disdain on my face or something (like I had embarrassed him?) By the time he joined me out in the hallway, steam was coming out of his ears. He was completely out of control as he grabbed me by the shirt and flung me against the locker, all the while screaming like a banshee. It was bad enough to get my Mom to the school to blast him and the administration. However, given the "times" it wasn't bad enough to fire the jerk. They just shuffled him off to another school the next year for a new start, "fresh with no mistakes."

Well, that was a digression I wasn't expecting when I started writing this piece. .......... my how often that happens............ glad to get that off my chest, even though I had no idea it was weighing on my chest !

On the other hand.......................thankfully there are the teachers who inspired us. You know this type too. They are the ones who took the time to get to know you and your quirky uniqueness. They are the ones who shone from a place called a "calling," who arrived early to the school to set up a special "station" in the classroom or to surprise you with a new activity geared to make learning FUN! They were the nurturers who greeted you with a smile and a sincere question about how your evening went..........who remembered when you and your family had a special event to attend and who understood if you were having a crappy day. It all came down to connecting and communicating with respect.........on both sides. They knew how to motivate and make you hungry to learn.

Who was your inspirational teacher?

On the last day of school in June, my son's Grade 3 class had a visitor arrive. It was their future Grade 4 teacher. She spent part of the morning with the class introducing herself and sharing with them how much she was looking forward to September when they would all be in her class. She then told them that they would be making a decision about a BIG project they would embark on together as a group, and that it could be anything from Space to Greek mythology .....it was totally up to them. She left them with lots to ponder over the summer, and a sense of excitement that I have heard in my son's voice whenever he has bumped into a classmate. How lucky he is to be entering into an inspirational teacher's classroom.

"One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers,
but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings.
The curriculum is so much necessary raw material,
but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child."
Carl Jung