More On Teaching

Somehow, surfing, I found this on Caren Lisner's blog (http://carenlissner.blogspot.com/)

1/7/2005
Will soon wake up, put on clothes, go to work.I'm done revising for tonight. Good night sweethearts. Good night, sweet prince. Good night, John Boy. Good night, Mrs. Calabash, where ever you are.That just made me think of something. Of the trivia we know, how much of it is because some teacher, when we were growing up, went off on a tangent about something? That's how I first heard of the "Mrs. Calabash" bit. Thank God for educators with personality. Well, parents, too.

I can count on one hand the teachers I had that left me with positive feelings, because they consciously used their personalities to good effect. I have read in many books (one that comes to mind is an autobiography of Charles Grodin) of negative associations that people have to the image of a teacher. I try to fight it daily. And I'm glad that Caren, who is a big time writer, appreciates teachers who allow their personalities into their teacher role.

If there are any readers out there who'd like to post comments, but haven't yet had a reason, here you go. Can you think of any examples of such trivia references that you learned from teachers?

Most of mine go back to one teacher Phil Chernofsky, my sixth grade teacher who had the courage and confidence to allow his real self into the room. I remember him talking about a Mad Magazine play that had skits acted out, and even had little side things going on in corners of the stage, the same way that they have the tiny cartoons (by Sergio Aragones) on the edges of the pages. I think about that often, wish I could've seen it.