Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Characters

As I have mentioned in other entries, I really enjoyed my time in high school. Many people dreaded their high school experience but I have many fond memories that always bring a smile to my face even now. Much of my nostalgia is based on the teachers I had. They were quite a group of characters and their sense of humor appealed to me back in high school as it does now many years later.

Our biology and physics teacher was one of those people you didn’t quite know what to make of. He would occasionally spew off phrases to us in German thinking we understood him. When we looked at him quizzically, he would sometimes realize he wasn’t speaking English. After 4 years though, we all became pretty proficient at knowing what he was saying to us when he was speaking in German. He also had a bag full of ridiculous proverbs he would say to us. Sometimes they made sense and other times, they would lead to more puzzled stares.

Our freshman English teacher, who also taught us French for a year, once caught one of our classmates chewing gum in class and made her wear the piece of gum on her nose the rest of the day. As cruel as it sounds, I enjoyed the idea of it because the girl chewed like a cow.

The other teacher who taught us French was a total crazy loon. There were times when we would point out her mistakes to her. She was much older and lost her train of thought on many occasions. She also had a habit of burping in the middle of her lessons. After two years of that we couldn’t wait to get rid of her.

One of our religion teachers had a feminist streak in her and so she taught us how to interpret scriptures and other biblical texts with a pointed gaze of people who had been excluded from the stories – the women. She was a fascinating teacher because she was tough and intelligent and demanded a lot from us. At the same time, I think we all learned an immense amount from her – not only on a religious level but on a critical thinking path when looking at literature.

All our literature teachers were great because they appreciated and enjoyed the texts we were reading. They gave us all a heightened sense of appreciation for literature in its many forms and what could be learned from books and poems and plays. We were encouraged to question everything, not just literature and it prepared me for college in ways I never imagined while I was in high school.

Yes, so some of the teachers were characters but they definitely kept the classroom interesting. Overall they taught and prepared us for the real world.

1 comment:

M said...

How cool! I want to meet these interesting people who had such an impact on your life.