{"id":222,"date":"2013-08-14T11:37:36","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T09:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/?p=222"},"modified":"2015-04-26T18:53:23","modified_gmt":"2015-04-26T16:53:23","slug":"what-my-teachers-really-taught-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/what-my-teachers-really-taught-me\/","title":{"rendered":"What my teachers really taught me"},"content":{"rendered":"

How much do you remember of your time in school? Twelve years (more in some places) is a long time to be anywhere, even with the summers off<\/span>. We should remember quite a bit. What I remember best, however, isn’t what was on the curriculum<\/span>, but what rubbed off<\/span> from a few special teachers.<\/p>\n

Science + …<\/h2>\n

As a sixth-grade<\/span> science teacher at a Catholic school, Mary Lannis<\/b> often spoke between the lines so as not to contradict<\/span> what we were hearing in religion class. When a student asked her about Mesopotamia and the Garden of Eden, she drew an outline<\/span> of Africa and said, “I think the Garden of Eden was here<\/b>” as she pointed to the exact location of the Olduvai Gorge<\/span> \u2014 where skeletons of hominids<\/span> supported the idea of human evolution.<\/p>\n

World history + …<\/h2>\n

All the way up to tenth grade, world history \u2014 especially 20th-century history \u2014 remained untaught. Then Greg Broman<\/b> was there to explain colonialism and the conflicts between great powers and nation-states. He could trace<\/span> anything to a key development or a key moment and see the ingenuity<\/span> or human shortcomings at the root of it. To explain a revolution, he’d say, “This is an example of Broman’s First Law: No one gives up power willingly.<\/b>” <\/p>\n

US history + …<\/h2>\n

Eleventh grade finally brought a proper, chronological survey<\/span> of American history in an elective<\/span>, college-level class. Barbara Jucca<\/b>‘s first words to us communicated a level of discourse unprecedented<\/span> in its strictness: “Everything you say in this room must be true.<\/b>” It had to be objectively verifiable<\/span>, with no room for opinion. A lot of American history, it turns out<\/span>, is about ideology and about people arguing different points of view, many of which obscured<\/span> the actual<\/span> facts. We didn’t need to do that ourselves.<\/p>\n

Math + …<\/h2>\n

Advanced<\/span> algebra was taught by Jim Nahas<\/b>, the spitting image<\/span> of French President Fran\u00e7ois Mitterrand. “You can’t be expected to remember all these formulas,” he said, “so I’ve created these formula sheets<\/span> for you.” He let us use them even during tests. This did not go down well<\/span> at all with calculus<\/span> teacher John Salamone<\/b>, who sometimes dropped by<\/span> unexpectedly. “What are you doing?” Mr. Salamone would say, swiping<\/span> a formula sheet from a kid in the front row and tearing it up into tiny pieces. “It’s a crutch<\/span>! They’ve got to think for themselves!<\/b>” Mr. Salamone, who was also the basketball coach, was known for his sense of humor and theatricality. But Mr. Nahas always got the better of<\/span> him. When Mr. Salamone left, he’d smile and say, “Don’t worry, kids.<\/b> I’ve got more formula sheets.” Lesson 1: Knowing where to find information is almost as good as knowing that information. Lesson 2: Teaching is actually a fun profession.<\/p>\n

English + …<\/h2>\n

One of my English classes was taught by Jennie Halapatz<\/b>, a lady with spiky<\/span>, white hair and a twinkle<\/span> in her eye. She liked the word “chutzpah”, and she had a lot of it. She subscribed to<\/span> Playboy<\/i>, she told us, though the pictures didn’t interest her. “Because of the pictures, they can afford to pay the best writers,” she explained. This was true back then; a lot of well-known authors were making good money from such articles. Ms. Halapatz’s true calling<\/span>, I think, was to teach us structured thought and critical thinking. “My daughter came home from a party last night and complained about how boring it was,” she said. “I asked her, \u2018What did you do to make it less boring?<\/b>\u2019” It was Ms. Halapatz who impressed on my mind, indelibly<\/span>, the importance of clear language and proper punctuation<\/a>; the difference between saying something and having something to say; and an appreciation of the different ways in which language is used in all aspects of life. It was an entire way of seeing the world.<\/p>\n

What distinguished<\/span> all these teachers, and some others I had (including Mildred Gergich<\/b> and Robert Taylor<\/b>), was their way of seeing their students’ individual abilities and talents and believing in them wholeheartedly<\/span>. As Ms. Halapatz said, “Don’t write, ‘I agree with E. B. White<\/a>.’ Write, \u2018E. B. White agrees with me.\u2019”<\/p>\n

I did keep in touch with Ms. Halapatz for a few years, but unfortunately not long enough to let her know I had found a career in writing and editing. She would be so proud to know that her efforts had paid off. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How much do you remember of your time in school? Twelve years (more in some places) is a long time to be anywhere, even with the summers off. We should remember quite a bit. What I remember best, however, isn’t what was on the curriculum, but what rubbed off from a few special teachers. Science + … As a sixth-grade … >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[41],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1560,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions\/1560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fascinating-america.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}