Blame these teachers for this column!

 May 9, 2013

Blame these teachers for this column!


By Kelvin Wade
From page A11 | May 09, 2013 | 1 Comment

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week. I hope students and parents take this week to say thank you to the people who work long, often thankless, hours shaping our children’s futures. These are the teachers who inspired me.

Like my older brother Tony, I’d been in the gifted and talented program at my old school in Norfolk, Va. So when we moved to Novato in 1976, my third-grade teacher, Ms. Hutchinson, saw something worth cultivating in me. Not only did she challenge me, but she had me help my struggling classmates. She’s the one who recommended I be promoted from third grade to fifth.

Lou Encalada was my sixth-grade teacher at Tolenas Elementary. While he had a great sense of humor and kidded with me often, he was also a stickler for discipline. Children with messy desks had them emptied in a pile on the floor and they had to organize them. (I was a regular.)

He used calisthenics and running to expend the nervous energy of troublemakers in class. He was famous for giving “nose jobs” as the kids called them. He’d pull disruptive kids out of class and stand nose to nose outside laying down the law. I never got one so I don’t know what he said, but it did the trick.

He’s retired now and maybe his methods seem tough compared to 21st century handholding, but his former students love him and that says something.

At Grange I had great teachers from Ms. Goggin to Ms. Goodsell to Ms. Sorenson. My eighth-grade journalism teacher Corky Brown made the biggest impact, introducing me to Mike Royko and Herb Caen’s columns. Mr. Brown’s passion for newspapers inspired me to start reading the paper as a kid. From his class, I wrote a weekly column called the “Bear Facts” for the Daily Republic back in 1979-80. No Corky Brown? No “Other Side.”

Once at Armijo, it was my bearded, flat cap wearing English teacher, Mr. Scherr, who made me look forward to coming to school. While math and numbers were like nails on a chalkboard, English and words were like a symphony. When I began this column, (before he moved) Mr. Scherr wrote to me regularly. It doesn’t get much cooler than getting a thumbs up from your old high school English teacher.

Mr. Kenny, my short story teacher, was another inspirational teacher at Armijo. He’d read controversial short stories with adult themes, profanity and one story that repeatedly featured the N word to the class. These are stories that probably wouldn’t pass muster in today’s antiseptic, politically correct academic setting. His class is probably why my first two books, “Morsels” Vols. I and II, are short story collections and not novels.

I had Mr. Collier for psychology and he was cool. It wasn’t just that Mr. Collier didn’t assign homework that made him so loved. It wasn’t that he would select a student to make a doughnut run to Winchell’s, although that went a long way to codifying his coolness. It was the fact that he treated his students like young adults. He made it clear that it was up to us to take notes and study and pass the tests. He didn’t hold our hands or berate those that slacked off.

In the end, we were responsible for what we did in his class and I think kids respected that.

One of the best things teachers can do is help students find what they’re good at and motivate them to achieve more. For some students, their impact is far greater than academics. Teachers are social workers, counselors, confidantes and more. They help make us who we are and for that, I can’t thank them enough.

Who inspired you? Peace.
_______________________________________

Jason Knowles May 09, 2013 - 8:58 am

Having worked with Lou for many years in this district, I second your praise for him. He was tough, but fair. Strict, but loving. Even the most churlish students loved him because for many of them, he was the only consistent adult in their lives. Thanks for the shout out to teachers, K-Dub.


Hello Kelvin,
 
Thank you for your kind words about some teachers whom you especially appreciated.  I am greatly pleased that I am among that list.
 
I always enjoy reading your essays.  Yes, I also enjoy Tony's..  By the way, tell Tony that you are as handsome as he is!
 
Students such as you made me look forward to being in the classroom.  You made teaching a joyful experience.  For that I thank you and many others for enriching my life.
 
Please tell me how I can get a copy of your book(s).
 
Thank you and good wishes,
Alex scherr

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