Teachers

This time of year I’m constantly amazed at all the FB posts of kids graduating, or mother/father’s announcing how excited they are that their child is moving on to the next year of school. And then this year something amazing happened, I had more and more of my teacher friends post that they will miss their students.  Those are great teachers to me. 

So it got me to thinking about the teachers in my life that made an impact. Chances are HIGH they have no idea the impact they’ve had. And while I know they most likely won’t ever read this post, I think it’s a sign of good karma to put out there how appreciative you are of someone. And heck, I’m friends with some of them on FB (I still call them Mr. XYZ and Mrs. XYZ on FB even though they’ve told me to use their first names. I just can’t do it.) and so I may send them a note telling them.

Let’s see…where to start. I’ll start with college and work my way back. 

 

Thinking….thinking….nope no faves in college.

 

Though Mr. Gonzalez was my instructor for The Seminar in Cervantes in which we read Don Quoixte in Baroque Spanish for the … entire…semester.  And while he may not have changed or impacted my life in a positive way, I do know that Blueberry and I have a favorite saying now because of him. I used to say, instead of “I have homework.” I’d say, “I’ve got a date with Cervantes.” Oh good times. 

 

Moving on. 

 

I think high school is where the vast majority of teachers really have an opportunity to impact a student.  I have two in high school that really stand out. 

 

First, Mr. Nelson.  He was my European History teacher in 11^th and 12^th grade. I purposely took another European History class because of him.  He was so enthusiastic about history that it was contagious.  It helped, I think, that I was at TASIS at the time. Being smack dab in the middle of Europe made the history more approachable and viewable. 

 

Mr. Nelson offered extra credit in class. He offered for us to go downtown with him on Saturday (a sacred day to any kid in boarding school cuz you could get off campus) and “show” us history.  When I showed up to meet him that first Saturday I was sure it was going to be him and me, the history nerd.  Instead I rounded the corner of the salon to see my entire class sitting there with him.  Granted our entire class was only 5 people. But I think that says something about a teacher when his students WANT to learn more.  And sure we were getting extra credit, but not that much. 

 

Years later I can remember random dates because on each of our tests the last page was a list of treaties or events, and again for extra credit, if you got the rate date for each you’d get one point. Which could make or break a grade really. So I would memorize dates like no buddies business. To this day, when I see one of those VW Westfalia camper vans I say in my head, or sometime out loud, “Treaty of Westfalia, 1648” Go ahead, go check Wikipedia. I’m telling you it was 1648. 

 

So, to Mr. Nelson who helped me LOVE European History to this day (I watch the History channel all the time), I say thank you.  

 

Mrs. Penn is the next instructor who greatly impacted my life. She taught Spanish at Quartz Hill High School.  I had her for first and second semester (Spanish 1 and 2).  The moment the first bell rang in class she was speaking Spanish to us. Our handouts were in Spanish, our homework assignments were in Spanish. She fully believed that you had to immerse yourself 100% in order to learn a language. She knew she only had us for 40 minutes a day, so she took full advantage of it. 

 

It wasn’t very long into class before I realized that Spanish came easily to me. I understood how a language worked, somehow.  But what impressed me most of all is how much ENGLISH grammar we learned in Spanish class. She taught us about grammar and so I discovered, in 10^th grade mind you, what a pronoun was. Or an adjective.  Amazing!!

 

Looking back I giggle to think I was almost 16 before I fully understood what a pronoun was and it was a SPANISH teacher who taught me it.  

 

Anyhow, I continued to take Spanish throughout my high school career because of Mrs. Penn. She made it so inviting to learn.  It was interesting, and exciting.  She taught me how to love another language.  Consequently my college degree was in Foreign Language and Literature.  Was she responsible for me being fluent in Spanish? Maybe not, but she was definitely a driving factor in it. She helped me discover something I could be passionate about, and could do well. So thank you Mrs. Penn.

 

Side note – I still correspond with Mrs. Penn every Christmas.  We exchange Christmas cards and every year it’s in Spanish. To put that into perspective, I was 16 when I was in her class.  I’m 45 now. Do the math. 

 

Teachers, in my opinion, are all too often underrated. It’s a horrible job to me. You have to deal with so many parents who think they’re kids are awesome when they may not be. On top of working for close to nothing, and dealing with all the social issues today's kids have to deal with.  Never in a hundred years would Mrs. Penn in 1984 had to worry about being shot at in school.

 

Teachers today are not only teaching, but are parents, counselors, etc.  They are raising societies kids in a way. There are some horrible teachers out there, I’ve had a few, but at the end of the day, I’m going to choose to believe there are more Mr. Nelson’s and more Mrs. Penn’s out there … and someday their students will look back and be super appreciative of those teachers.

 

Did you have a favorite teacher who impacted you?