When I took Geometry with Mr. Savage, I really struggled. The memorization of axioms, postulates, and theorums left me dizzy. I went to him after school and shared my problem with him. He was very compassionate and understanding.
His attitude emboldened me to make a request: ”If I can get the correct answer by proving it logically and not memorizing, would you mark it right?” He said he would, and I got through geometry with his help.
I have had the benefit of multiple inspirational and transformational teachers in my life. None more so than Mr. Ed Gagnon who taught me AP U.S. History and AP U.S. Government. I had to fight just to get into his class and when I arrived I found myself pushed beyond anything I had previously experienced. Mr. Gagnon’s course consisted of writing 10 college-level papers in addition to massive amounts of reading.
Although I didn’t know it at the time, this class set me up to succeed in college. I learned how to budget my time, how to prioritize work, and, yes, on occasion how to cram before the big test. In fact I believe this class actually tougher than many of the classes I took in college.
I had always been pretty good at math, but I never really enjoyed it until 8th grade, when I had Mr. Banderob for Pre-Algebra II.
Mr. Banderob made math interesting, pushing us to use formulas in new ways. He made it goofy, making bad math puns and graphing equations into silly shapes. Most of all, he made math make sense.
I’m still not sure if Mr. Banderob’s brain and mine just work the same way, or if somehow he taught my brain to think like his, but the outcome is the same: when Mr. Banderob explained things, they clicked. It got to the point where I would anticipate how he was going to explain things, or what bad pun he would make. Sometimes he’d make a slip of the tongue, leaving himself open for an awful pun, and would just look at me and warn, ”Don’t even say it.”
Mr. Beschta did not suffer fools. He would not tolerate even a tiny murmur of chit-chat in class, and if anyone crossed him, he would stop class in its tracks and wait quietly for the offending student to apologize. I only once ever saw him explicitly ask for an apology from a particularly dim girl who hadn’t gotten the memo on his softly authoritative style of discipline.
He was also, in my opinion, one of the most gifted and passionate teachers at the school, and he exposed hundreds (probably thousands) of students to contemporary poetry — Robert Bly, Carolyn Forche, Li Young Lee, Galway Kinnell. He froze us to our seats reading Kinnell’s poem ”The Bear” aloud.
Ron Berger was the first teacher – and still one of the few – I have ever met who carries an oversize art portfolio of his students’ drafts and completed work. Then a sixth grade teacher in western Massachusetts completing a Master’s degree at Harvard School of Education in 1989, Ron had crafted an independent study course where he visited one school in the Boston area every Friday. That particular Friday, he had arranged to visit a Boston public elementary school where I worked.
I was a post graduate at a boarding school for a year, not thrilled to be there. But I was eager to make the most of my studies, get into a college, and move on. My English teacher that year was Mr. Fleck, who was unlike any other teacher I had ever had. On a midterm progress report he wrote: ”She does seem to expect failure or at least anticipates problems; I hope that her confidence in her own verbal ability will continue to grow. She has the potential of finding her inner tutor.” I find this to be very poignant for me in my life even today, outside of studies. He believed in me, in my abilities, when I did not. I am grateful to him to this very day for lifting me up and reassuring me. Thank you, Mr. Fleck.
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Francis Nine, Ponca City Senior High School
Jay Criche, Lake Forest High School
Sally Cullen, Marshall Junior High
Nadine Cole, Academy of Ballet Arts
Mrs. Starr, Streams Elementary School
Mr. Dauplaise, Washington Junior High
Mr. Anderson, Vol State Community College
Joseph Castka, Martin Van Buren High School
Mr. Randy Rusk, Snider High School
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