[davem4616]

I thought I'd start a thread that we could have some fun with....

I was lucky in that I had a few elementary teachers that also taught me something about life.

I recall my sixth grade math teacher, who was well over six feet saying "Class you're not listening to me, so I'm going to come down and speak with you at your level." Then he smiled and actually sat in the waste basket so that he was eye level with us...we all laughed, but his sense of humor grabbed our attention and we listened to him after that. Much later in life I learned that all communication actually occurs in the mind of the listener, and the importance of speaking in a manner that you will be heard....so, thank you Mr. Tobin for the early lesson on that.

I had a few teachers that ruled the classroom with an iron fist and looking back a few were just going through the motions year after year waiting to retire...but my 7th grade English Lit teacher still stands out the most among them all....She was perhaps 5' 2", auburn hair and, yes eyes of blue.

Most of us boys were taller than Mrs. Kane, yet you sat in fear last period on Monday afternoon if over the weekend you hadn't prepared to recite the poem from memory that she had assigned on Friday .

Even though I was a boy scout and my motto was 'be prepared', it was Mrs. Kane that actually taught me what being prepared meant, as well as the consequences of not being prepared.

When Mrs. Kane called your name, there was never any doubt that you immediately rose from your seat and stood tall and straight beside your desk waiting to hear the words, "You may begin".

If you knew the poem, she smiled and nodded her head encouraging you as she sat at the front of the room, if you attempted to recite the poem, but stumbled, she would prompt you. If you stood in silence looking down at your feet, she waited for what felt like an eternity before you were totally dismissed when she asked a fellow student to stand up.

Her message was clear, she didn't need to say "sit down"...you were embarrassed enough...and a complete fool if you weren't prepared the following week...

Sixty plus years later I can still recite parts of 'Trees', 'Flanders Fields' and 'The Road Not Taken'.

I still remember how sad I felt the day she returned to class after having buried her twenty-something son, he died in her garage when his car fell off a jack and crushed him...she wore black that day.