You know, this thread has made me appreciate how many of the teachers I had were really great; and the ones that weren’t incredible at least were memorable.
Mrs. Plancich was my 2nd and 3rd grade teacher, and she was the one who arranged to have me tested for and placed in the all-day gifted program at a different school for 4th and 5th. I’m still grateful to her for doing that, because I had gone from being a good student to a little sullen brat; she understood that it was because I was bored, when I was too young to articulate that.
Mrs. Skibo, who somehow managed to teach three grade levels of gifted kids in two rooms, alone. She had us read wonderful books, put on plays, write and bind our own stories, taught us math in other numeric bases, covered Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, raised goldfish and beetles… the list goes on. Looking back, I am astounded at how much she could handle, and handle alone. I mean, she even had a “bring your pet to school” day, which was a complete bonanza. I brought my cat in a paper bag. I kid you not.
Mrs. Bahat and Mrs. Oman, who jointly taught another three grade levels of gifted kids in two rooms, this time 6th through 8th. Mrs. Oman wore these slip-on Keds that she’d colored to look like watermelon slices, and Mrs. Bahat wore a sari and bindi (affectionately called The Bahat Dot) every day. They were both wonderfully supportive, lively, interesting women who made all the subjects come alive, and didn’t hold it against me that I refused to put much effort into math and science.
In high school, there were Bob and Sue LaFollette, who taught art and English respectively. Both were bitingly and hilariously sarcastic and had no time to deal with kids that didn’t respect both them and their chosen subjects. Discipline was not a problem in their classes, but there was a lot of laughter and interest to balance that out.
Mr. Powell taught high school chemistry and psychology, and let me TA for him my senior year. He became something of a friend-- we’d go out to breakfast or for coffee sometimes and just shoot the breeze.
Mr. Bogdanoff taught Russian and let us make Russian food and tea every Friday, and at the open house at the end of the year, the fourth-year students would write and put on a play entirely in Russian. We also made Ukranian Easter eggs and took field trips to churches and businesses run by and catering to Russian immigrants.
Mr. Sherbrook taught Social Studies and Current Events, and would always make the first question on every test a ridiculously easy one, so that you’d feel confident that no matter what, you’d get one question right. It would be something like, “Spell your first name correctly for five points” or “Which kind of M&M’s contain peanuts, Plain or Peanut?” He also had us be a mock Senate, and each of us had to try to get a bill passed for our states by our fellow senators/classmates. Porkrolling was both allowed and encouraged, which led to people bribing their classmates with candy and stunts to back their bills. He also brought in an ancient VHS tape of the Schoolhouse Rock song about how a bill becomes a law.
Mr. Krock taught math – I had him for Trigonometry. He was painfully shy and soft-spoken, but he’d stand at the door before each class and shake every student’s hand as they came in, and on Halloween he wore his usual short-sleeved shirt, tie and cordouroys with a Rastafarian hat, complete with fake dreads.
There were several others, and I haven’t even gotten to the college profs, but I often think fondly of these teachers and hope they’re doing well. I found out a few years out of high school that Sue LaFollatte was gravely ill – I visited once and learned sometime later that she’d died. I don’t know how to contact Bob, but I hope he’s OK.