Those that can, teach

This past week was Teacher Appreciation Week. I only know this because someone posted on Facebook asking for the most memorable quotes from a teacher in your life. Typically, I would probably have known it was Teacher Appreciation Week because my kids would be in school, but this year, due to the COVID-19 shutdown, they are not. And I am betting a lot of newly minted homeschooling parents are really appreciating the job teachers do right about now.

But that is not what I wanted to write about. My homeschooling experience is generally going well. I have been a teacher for many years but as I have always known; teaching your own kids is not the same as teaching a class—I am much less patient with my own kids than I ever was with my students.

What the aforementioned request for quotes made me think about was all the teachers that have made a significant impact in my life; all for the better.

To start off the list would be my Grade Primary teacher Hope Wright. I don’t remember much about that year, but I do remember being happy in school. I always have a warm feeling when I think about Mrs. Wright. I have a vague memory of her at that time as a tall, thin figure in an A-line skirt. I think we had a Reader with a character named Ted and definitely a dog – probably Spot. It was a good start to my school career that year in Grade Primary.

Surprisingly Mrs. Wright now lives just down the hill from me and I get to take my children trick-or-treating at her door every year. She still has the classic elegance I remember from when she taught me at age five, when she struck me as a slightly better version of Mary Poppins.  

Next up Ms. Gloria Day, now Wesley. Grade 2. Ms. Day was strict but kind and fair. I was not always the easiest student; had a hard time sitting in my seat. She once told me that she didn’t know if she should put a bomb under my seat to get me to work faster or glue me to it—so I would sit still.

I remember her as a beauty too, with elegance and grace. Along with all that, she was a writer, with a book that had her name on the cover. That fact always stayed with me in the years to come. I knew a writer. They weren’t impossible people that lived in a different dimension—they were real, and you could be one. She was the first teacher that showed me what I could be.

There was a dry patch, with not much inspiration for a few years and then I found Mr. Peter Humphries. He was my Grade 7 teacher in North Vancouver. Every morning we started class by writing in our journals for twenty minutes. The best twenty minutes of the day.

On Fridays he would take our journals home and correct them. I don’t know what type of feedback other students got but I got long notes discussing my work and what he liked about it. He pointed out my use of metaphor, interesting interpretations of life events, strange opinions, and unique expressions—reading those notes was the best part of every Monday. He was the first person who ever told me I was a good writer.

And last, but not least, was Mr. Fred Olthius who taught me English for several years at Victoria Composite High School in Edmonton. I wrote good essays for this teacher and he taught me how to make them better; focus an argument, maintain flow and select words for impact as well as style.

All of these teachers had a hand in helping me find my way to the profession and pastime I love - writing.

When I am not writing for a living I am teaching. I can only hope I have left a similar legacy in the hearts and minds of some of my students.