What I learned when Miss Thompson flipped her wig!

Several articles I read recently started me thinking about my teachers and what they had taught me that had nothing to do with core curriculum.

Our seventh grade class had voted not to have a Valentine exchange because we were too old for such baby stuff; but as the day drew closer, we started rethinking the decision and I was “elected” to ask if we could vote again.  I approached Miss Johnson with some trepidation, and posed the question.  “Of course,” she said and paused. “You may vote as many times as you want, but you’ll have to live with your first decision.” Decades later I consider: If I make this choice, will it be another Valentine box?

No one from Lincoln Elementary School will forget the flamboyant art teacher! Mrs. Fitzgibbons wore lots of jewelry and flowing clothes, and had known Walt Disney; she talked endlessly about him and we rolled our eyes. Our fourth grade art class was creating a bucolic mural (in retrospect, it probably had something to do with sod busting because I recall a lot of green and brown paint); each of us had a section to add, but my cows looked like dogs and my dogs looked like goats.  In a fit of “who cares what the world thinks!” I drew a four-legged creature of unknown genus, painted it pink with purple spots, and stood back waiting for the reprimand.  I knew that I would have to cover it over with a red-sided barn, but Mrs. F’s unexpected response was “Walt would have LOVED that horse! He wanted art to show the joy in people’s hearts!” and the “horse” stayed in the mural. If life gets routine, I try to add a pink horse!

The stories could go on, of course, because each teacher contributed more than classroom content to my life. But I saved the best for last!

As Miss Thompson paced about the eighth grade classroom lecturing animatedly on the wintry trials of Valley Forge, a hanging plant snatched her wig askew; without a flinch she ignored our snickers and carried on with her hair at a rakish angle.  Her goal was to communicate how the soldiers persevered under adversity because they believed in what they were doing… and she did!

Forget the interactive whiteboards, the iPads, and Web 2.0 … How are we REALLY teaching everyone around us?

Cyndee Perkins

Director, Curriculum and Program Development