Teachers

How much do you owe to your former teachers?  That is an interesting question because teachers have the opportunity to impact your life for good or for bad.  Today you hear so many folks talk about all the bad teachers and that bothers me because I really don't think there are really that many.  But the bad get all the headlines.  For over 30 years I was involved in hiring and evaluating math teachers and during the last 20 or so the folks we hired were very qualified and excellent teachers.  In all of those years I only dealt with three who I thought were poor and we were able to remove them.
         But having said that, as a student I only had a few teachers who were influential in my life.  I did have some poor ones and many average ones.  But in those days salaries were so poor and teaching conditions often so inadequate that good teachers had a difficult time staying in education.  I felt led by the Lord to go into teaching and I managed on a starting salary of $3,500 a year by working many extra jobs.  Others in my graduating class took jobs with much, much higher starting pay. I had four interviews resulting in four offers. When I was first involved in hiring I had to actually go out and recruit folks just to apply for our openings.  Times were much different then.
          Now, as a student, I did have a few good teachers.  When we moved to Lititz my fifth grade teacher, I think her name was Charlotte Mathers, made me feel so much involved and appreciated.  This was my fourth school in five years and I was an outsider, until she welcomed me.  The one thing I really remember learning that year were the names and spellings of the capitals of all the states.  But I know I must have learned much more than that.  it was definitely my best year of any of my elementary years.  She motivated me to do my best.
The best teacher I ever had K-12 was my seventh and eighth grade English teacher, Miss Marjorie Enck.  She was tough but fair.  We had to record her daily notes off the board and memorize them.  She would call on you to recite and if you failed you would get one of her "pills" which meant your name went on the blackboard, for all classes to see, and you would need to come in after school for make-up work.  I never received any of her pills.  I was always prepared.  And in those two years I learned all the grammar and writing skills I would ever learn from any teacher.  And these skills have carried me through my entire life.  I owe much to her.  Incidentally, later she married and became Mrs. Kauffman, but no relation to me.
I never had an outstanding math or science teacher until I entered Susquehanna University.  There I met Dr. Fred Grosse, a physics prof who came there the same year that I did.  As a physics major I had him for every physics course I took.  But what made him special was the interest he took in each of us individually, even going as far as inviting us to his home for dinner.  Incidentally, after over 50 years there, he just retired a few years ago.  In fact he showed up at our 50th Reunion last Fall and spent time with many of us.  A few years ago we decided to visit SU to see the new science building.  Dr. Grosse was there and he remembered me immediately.  I found that amazing.
Two college math profs had impacts on my life.  At SU, as a math major, I had Dr. Robison for most of my math classes.  He was very elderly and rumors were that he had worked with Einstein.  One day I was assigned to teach a lesson on Kepler's Laws in his Vector Analysis class.  After I was done he commended me and suggested that I should consider going into teaching.  That was very influential in me changing my career focus and path.
Then, in my graduate work at Bucknell, I encountered Dr. Emil Polack.  He was tough and made us stand and recite, usually in an 8 am class - sometimes even on Saturday mornings.  We all dreaded that we would be called upon and we prepared.  And if you couldn't answer correctly, he would take you back to some point in your math background and, through a series of questions, bring you back to a point where you could answer correctly.  He had an incredible ability to do this and while you "sweated this out", you learned.  He was also a stickler for precise definitions and every test began with "define".  Now I could never put students on the spot like he did, but I learned so much about teaching techniques which I tried to put in place in my 39 years in the classroom.
Unfortunately, the teachers who stood out to me come down to these five.  The rest were average and a few were poor (maybe I should blog about the poor ones). But I have a feeling that I may have learned much about what not to do from the dozens of others that I have had over the years.  And, as a student, I certainly learned how to deal with a variety of personalities and styles and this has helped me adjust to a variety of bosses over the years.  Sometimes these are the most valuable lessons that you can 
Now my one regret is that, with the exception of Dr. Grosse, I never took time to share my appreciation with them. I wish that I had. All except him are no longer alive.  As a former teacher you'd love to know if you've had an impact on lives.  Fortunately, I have kept numerous notes and letters that I have received and every once in awhile I hear, usually second or third hand, that somebody appreciated being in my math class.  Now if you've had a teacher who influenced you in a positive way and he/she is still alive, take time to share that with them.  Return the impact - old teachers will appreciate it.