[NA] here's to career teachers....

I just mentioned to my buddy how Ms. DeVreindt tortured us with diagramming sentences and grammar in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.


The result of which was one of a handful that was given week off in the junior year of high school when the appalled teacher set aside the week for remedial grammar. Then I got 780(?) on my SAT (one question wrong) and a full year credit in college.

(I know. You could hardly tell now but that's only because I blew off typing class. I intend to take one this semester. My vision took a nose dive in the last year, too. New glasses next week.)
 
Mr. VanderWoude.
He let me sleep the entire year through 2nd period Statistics.

Back story:
On the first day of class, he gave everyone a list of the homework to be done for the entire year. During class he would do one problem on the board from that night's homework for everyone to follow along with so if they ran into any issues that night they would have done at least one problem, and hopefully it would help them out. So, after the first day, I took the book home along with the homework list. I banged out about 9 weeks worth of homework in 3 hours or so.

I also had the slacker seat (back of the class, closest to the door) and was sleeping on day two of class. I'm snoozing away and suddenly I hear "Frederick! What is the answer to this problem?!?" I lift my head up, rub my eyes, and for whatever reason I happened to remember that particular problem out of the hundreds I'd done the night before. I look at the board, and rattle off the "x = 5, x = -3, x=8" or whatever the answer was. The whole class is staring at me like I'm Good Will Hunting, he looks at me, looks at the board, looks at his book, shakes his head and says, "Go back to sleep."

He asked me after class or the next day how I knew the answer so quick, and I told him I'd done about 9 weeks of homework the night before. He let me sleep the rest of the year. :D
 
I'd have to unconditionally say it was Mr. Webster, 9th grade Algebra 1.

It was more like the class from hell on stick and same goes for the lizard he rode in on too, and his quizes and exams are what true nightmares are made of. It was an interesting and engaging class however it was frigging evil starting with 3 hours of homework on day one of class due the next day. We even had homework due on the last day of class then was given another several hours of homework to do on our own after school let out without it ever being graded. Like I said, frigging evil.

He taught at a college level in high school so you would be ready for college. The year long Algebra 1 syllabus was complete before thanksgiving. We then went through the Algebra 2 syllabus by christmas break, then we were assigned lots of homework due the day we got back to class after the holidays. Then we had a whole spring to do whatever he threw at us next. Turns out it was trig, geometry, imaginary numbers with a vengence, mathematical concepts of physics equations and the 100 word problems from hell just to prove that we could do the impossible that everyone else freaked out over. At some point he was showing us something and said most of us would never ever see it again but those who do see it will know how to solve it and we will thank him for it. (I can still remember his face after saying that to this day) He made each and every one of us do the related problems and understand thoroughly what we were doing and why and how it worked..then he went onto the next subject. He never would tell us exactly what it was other than it was an exercise in numbers to give us self confidence and understanding. I was one of those few that found out what it was. About halfway through Calculus 3 in college everyone's brains in the room went KABOOM, brains all over the wall, no survivors, they're all dead jim, jim, hey jim, jiimmm, um, jim's dead too. My instructor turned around to look at the expected bodycount and got it...MINUS 1. He had the most confused look ever...I was just sitting there calmly smiling because I knew how to do that stuff like it was basic one digit addition. I had already had it rammed down my throat for almost two weeks in 9th grade.

Sadly, Mr. Webster got fired the year after I took his class for not giving out the administration's required quota of A,B,C,D,F's in his classes. Our grades in his class was what we earned and deserved and we all knew it. All the HS math after that and some college math up to a point was a complete total blow off. I was one of the many ex students of his that when we heard he got fired and why, that descended on the school board for committing high treason.
 
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I had a teacher in Junior High, Ms. Rohe, who was a great teacher - not just a textbook reader. She taught "social studies" (history and government) and she actually challenged us to *think* for ourselves.

The year after I left there to go to high school, she taught her AP Social Studies 9th graders one whole quarter of special curriculum, supplemental to the defined curriculum. It was an extensive and in-depth treatment of a particular doctrine and the political environment which led to it, who the players were, why what happened, happened.

At the end of the quarter, the students were given their quarter final exam, and they pretty much all (high achievers that they were) got the answers precisely as taught- and they all got "F" as the grade. As Ms. Rohe explained, they all gave her answers exactly as she had taught them- and it was all BS- made up - fantasy.

She explained to the students that they must always be vigilant, ready to challenge authority and verify for themselves what the truth really is.

A teacher could never get away with that today; ironically, because public school teachers are not given the luxury of being able to make their own lesson plans.

Sadly, Ms. Rohe died very young, maybe in her mid-thirties, and great and caring educator was lost.
 
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