Did you Like School?

Did you like grade school?

Were you the teacher's favorite child or most detested?

Were you grades good, average or bad?

Did you have a favorite teacher?

Describe the worst teacher you had.

I was the kind of student that teachers always remember, I'll put it that way. My grades were...all over the board, depending on whether or not I liked the subject. I had some fav teachers, and one of them was also a pastor, and performed the wedding service for my wife and I many years after I graduated from the public school that he taught at.As an adult, we continued our friendship. I hunted and fished with him a lot, and he is a great guy.

I loved school and was always the teacher's pet. =) My favorite teacher was Miss Coverston. I thought she was beautiful, smart and she was the first teacher I ever had who wasn't married. For some reason I thought that was really cool.

Mrs. Crabill was one of the worst teacher's I had. She made me feel stupid when I received a B, rather than an A.

My favorite part of school was our reading circle where we would read portions of a book out loud and would take turns reading out loud. I would always sit next to Ralph (another kid in school). He stuttered a bit whenever he would read and I found that if I tapped his foot with mine it distracted him and he didn't stutter as much. He relaxed a bit or something. It was kind of funny. =) We were great friends all through school. Well, until the fourth grade when we moved to another town.

I loved school - from grade school through high school. The grade
(grammar) school I attended was in unincorporated Pine Mountain Valley.
We had coal-burning stoves in each classroom and each day in the winter
one of us boys would be assigned the "go-get-a-bucket-of-coal" duty. It
was not a punishment, but an honor - a duty.

I was the four-eyed nerdy kid that the teachers loved, and the other
boys teased. I made straight A's until the 11th grade, where I received
my first B.

The teachers? This was in the days when teaching was one of the most
respected professions in the community, and teachers taught because
they loved it. I had my favorites, but a couple stand out. When I
entered the third grade, I was diagnosed with Bright's Disease - a
frequently terminal illness that made me miss all but 8 weeks of school
that year. My teacher, Mrs. Steis, brought me weekly (sometimes daily)
assignments to the hospital I was in, 25 miles away. That is
dedication, people!

Another one, Mrs. Talley, taught us in the 5th grade and was so fond of
our class that when we went to high school in the 8th grade, she
transferred to the high school and taught Latin. Yep, I took Latin for
two years just because I loved her. That was one of the wisest
decisions I ever made because I wound up working in the medical field
for thirty years, and those two years of Latin were key to my success.
Latin a dead language? Hardly.

Even the worst teacher I ever had (in grade school) taught me well, but
she was MEAN! Instead of making an unruly student stand in the corner,
or be sent to the office, she had a huge paper mache' statue of the
devil that she would pin your name on for the entire day. We
creek-dipped, foot-washed, Bible-Belt Southern Baptists feared for our
very souls throughout that day.

I liked school from kindergarten through second grade. My problems as a student started in 3rd grade and continued, for the most part, throughout my public school education. My teacher in 3rd grade was a Mrs. Seltzer. She seemed to dislike me from the beginning. My older brother had been her pet three years earlier, and she constantly compared me to him. She was an extremely strict teacher who ruled through humiliation and ridicule. She liked my brother, because he had learned, at an early age, that you can get more from women if you charm it out of them. I was never a real discipline problem; I just wouldn't work for any teacher I didn't respect. I was labeled a difficult child and an underachiever.

My favorite teacher was Miss Durham, my 6th grade teacher. She was the first to realize that I didn't do my homework because I didn't need to. After chastising me in private at the beginning of the year, she started to see that my reputation was unfounded. She made me an "assistant." I was usually the first one to finish my classwork, especially my reading assignments, and after I had done so, it was my job to help the students who were struggling. It was then that I first started thinking about becoming a teacher. That notion continued into jr. high and high school, as I grew more and more to believe that it was my purpose, to be a teacher who fostered self-esteem and genuine learning, through acceptance of each student's learning style and strengths.

I loved college from the first moment I walked onto a campus. I finally felt like I was at home somewhere.

Ann

I tolerated school in grades 1 through 3 in Eau Claire and Mansfield. Not much choice, you had to go.
Hated it in grades 4 and 5 in Cuyahoga Falls.
Loved it in grades 6-8 in Akron because basically it was a warehouse for kids, not a place for learning. Of the 44 kids in my class, 22 lived at the Children's Home.
Detested high school in Cuyahoga Falls. I had wanted to go to Akron East. Quit as soon as I turned 16 after 10th grade.
In grade school my grades were average. In high school they were just good enough to keep from flunking out.

I was never the teacher's pet. In 7th grade I was the most detested. Mrs. Canfield often said, "Dick, someday you'll laugh out of the wrong end of the horn." I'm still not sure what that meant other than that I took nothing seriously.

My 6th grade teacher in Akron was very good. Miss Woodard even managed to make the worst ruffians, and that included most of the boys, take an interest in learning something.

The worst teacher I had was Miss Wolcott, a real witch, in 5th grade. One day she asked the name of the ship that hit an iceberg and sank in 1912. I raised my hand and said, "The Titanic." She called me stupid and said anyone should know it was the Lusitania. I never again tried to answer a question in school. Not once until the day I quit. I'd just shrug my shoulders and say, "Beats me," even when I knew the answer.

I loved, loved, loved school, all of it, even when I went back in my late thirties.

I still love learning. Thinking of the men versus women issue, most of my teachers were women.

I went to big city, or near the city, schools. My high school had 3500 students. My college had 500. I absolutely loved that place. My junior year there was the happiest year of my life. A study on TV the other night spoke of the stress college students feel today. I felt no stress. I loved my classes, my teachers, my friends, my boyfriend. I had little money, only enough to get my laundry done each week plus a few cokes at the college grill or bar in town. That was enough. I had a roof over my head and ate at the college dining hall. My boy friend collected coke bottles, turned them in for the deposit money and took me for pizza now and then.

(I diverted a bit there. Sorry.)

Carol

Your stories are great! Brew, Your teacher was over the top with the devil deal.

I didn't go to schol until the second grade. Mom taught school 30 miles from home. She drove a carfull of hooligans 30 miles to school, taught Jr High English and Home Ec, then drove us 30 miles home.

She did not like it, but did it for two years. I found out it was no fun to be the teacher's kid.

Fourth grade gave me a teacher who adored me. I could do no wrong. Looking back on her, I see she should have been jailed. She was mean to everyone except me.

The school was small --17 kids maximum. My grades were fine through grade school--then came Hgh school which was a boarding academy of 500 kids, it was a shocker and took some getting used to.

College was a place I had to go to--after two years , I married Dave.

Distance must have been good I went back when I was 36 and graduated.

I disliked grade school. It disliked me as well. I was a lousy student and did badly.

Lane!

I am so glad to see you back!

I did like school, and I was at a pretty decent one from grades 5-7, where I was involved in a lot of musical stuff. Then my family moved out of the country and when we moved back a year later we lived in a really rough neighbourhood, with an equally tough school. When one of my former teacher's got word of this, he actually called my parents to encourage them to put me on public transit (an hour each way) and send me back to my former school so I did not fall into trouble, and of course could continue along the musical path I had started (this was actually not allowed at the time - you had to attend your neighbourhood school so there was some finessing going on in the background, too). He really did me an enourmous favour, and I give him great thanks all the time for being who he was.

Can you find me?

Center, third row.

I'm with the others - right in the middle of the page.

Ann

All right You were the best looker!

Were you also the best best behaved and smartest kid in the class?

Yes, your face hasn't changed much.
I like the standardized dress code.

Alice wrote:

All right You were the best looker!

Were you also the best best behaved and smartest kid in the class?

No. I was a nightmare.

Top row, center.

Dick, I know you found me but you didn't have all the picture on the screen at the time!

The school:



"Balshaw's C. E. High School is a school with long traditions and a reputation second to none for academic excellence. The original school was founded by a local businessman, Richard Balshaw, in 1782. The present building dates from 1931 with major additions of facilities completed in 1984 and in 2003-05."

The school motto: Non sibi sed allis: Not for oneself but for others.

LOVE THE MOTTO--NO WONDER YOU RUN A MESSAGE BOARD!

Kindergarten through second grade was nice. I had some great teachers and it was fun. I really looked forward to going until I reached third grade.

My third grade year was horrible and really effected me the rest of my school career. Mrs. Reese was an older teacher with greasy gray hair with thick glasses. From the first day I met her, she took a dislike to me that confused and hurt me. She singled me out daily for various things and I ended up having to stand in front of the class with my nose in a circle that she drew on the board, for offenses like being last to finish a paper. She deliberately kept a closet in the class dirty with large dirt clots and made me clean the dirt up in front of everyone. She used threats to keep me quiet and was cruel in ways that no kid should have to put up with. The worst was not letting me go to the restroom when I had to go and ended up having accidents in class. I was the laughing stock of the class. I grew up with those kids and most into high school.

I had some great teachers in high school and will never forget the blessings of one teacher in particular. Mrs. Thoelke was the angel who stood strong and helped me through one of the most difficult times I have ever had to go through in my life in my Sr. year. I even ended up living with her family for a short time during a crisis situation for a couple of months and she became someone who advocated for me the rest of my time in school.

Shelagh, your school picture is great. I picked you out out as well.

Vickie

I think I was a disappointment to everyone during my K-12 years. A lot of my teachers were wonderful. Others didn't seem to know what they were doing and, without doing anything to get detentions or a visit to the principal's office, I tended to overtly ignore as much of what the bad teachers were trying to force me to do.

My parents, both of who were teachers, were discouraged with my bad teachers--but they thought I should play the game and so my best anyway. I understood their concern, but couldn't get with the program of sucking up to clowns.

Malcolm

Alice wrote:

LOVE THE MOTTO--NO WONDER YOU RUN A MESSAGE BOARD!

One of my teachers said I would end up as a missionary in Africa!

Vickie,

I had problems in infant school, too. It made me stronger and think it did the same for you. Writing must be difficult for anyone who had a perfect upbringing.

Malcolm,
You should write about it; I'm sure your muse would have a field day!