Bad school memory- from light to heavy

HImom
Sat, 15 Nov 2008 04:46:04 +0000

OK, to balance out, here’s a story about my favorite teacher. He helped give us back my son’s joy of learning–he is a lifelong family friend that I had known from my middle school days and one of the most caring & motivating people I’ve ever known. He knew that I & the kids had had trouble finding them a good school environment and actually transferred to his school in the hopes that he might teach my son. My son was overjoyed to be in his 6th grade class. There were over 30 students in the class and it ranged from the exceptionally gifted (kids that could probably have done college level work without much difficulty) to one child that needed an assistant around 24/7 and everything in between.
He was able to keep all of the kids engaged and learning but more importantly help kindle and re-kindle the joy of learning in all of them. It was wonderful to behold–the 1st week of class, he had all the students make planetariums to take home & observe the heavens. He also had the kids all building models of the human body with popsicle sticks, rubber bands & string. My son & his geeky friends refused to go out for recess until they each completed working models of the entire hand & knew all the muscles, bones & tendons. They also had an afterschool basketball team & were allowed to compete with the other schools. They also created the school yearbook & S was in charge of all the photographs and training everyone on how to use the scanner. That class also did an art project to make cement stepping stones for the school. It was such an amazing year and son so dearly enjoyed it!
I was sad that after that year, the teacher chose to become the tech teacher (it was good for the school & he does an amazing job at it and they really needed him for that position, but he was one of the best teachers S ever had at a time when he really needed it–truly a magical time & year). I was sad for D that she never got to have that teacher for 6th grade & has never the same relationship with a teacher (tho she & everyone did have him for tech). Her art teacher in community college continues to rave about her to anyone who will listen & she has had some others who have enjoyed her but it wasn’t that depth of a relationship that I sensed with S & his mentor (I think part of it was that S reminded him in ways of his own son who was a friend of S).