The teacher you never forget
Is there ANYONE you can think of from high school that you would actually WANT to run in to in your home town? And not with your car?
Ha ha. What? You guys didn’t have the same high school experience as me?
I kid, I kid! Seriously, who would you want to randomly bump in to?
If we are Facebook friends, this is a repeat story (but what is social media if not repeat stories?! ha ha), but on Saturday, my dad and I went to Panera after our run. I was changing in the bathroom and when I walked back to the table I saw a woman standing there, that I did not recognize, but then the back of a male’s head… that I immediately recognized! It was my high school Spanish Teacher, Mr. H!
So, I have to tell you a bit about my perception of my high school. Well, my post college perception of it. See, when I was in high school, I thought I was smart because I easily got straight As. Nope. I wasn’t smart. Most classes were really dumbed down. I figured this out the hard way, when I got to college (and thought it was hard). I don’t know if it was to get people to pass, or because the teachers didn’t care, or the parents complained… but not much learning was happening in high school. Most classes were 30 (if even) minutes of lecture then time to work on homework.
Anyway. Mr H was the only teacher I had that taught for the entire class and made students do their homework, at, gasp, home! And I remember then, that students hated it. And had their parents complain. I didn’t understand what the big deal was. I didn’t understand why the other teachers gave us so much time to do work in class… when many students had study hall (I never did, but I still worked 40 hours a week and got straight As, so, yeah, easy). I think that is the beginning of when I started to, um, despise whiny little biznatches. Anyway…
I had Mr. H for all four years of high school Spanish and appreciated that we spent the class learning, and not screwing around. I deeply respected him and his principles – I shared similar thoughts on hard work and the payoff of it (even though I had to learn what that really meant with a full load, in college). He was without a doubt my favorite teacher.
After high school, I went to Spain with my dad, Mr. H and some Spanish students. My dad roomed with Mr. H! So they became buddies. Hee hee.
We had a fabulous time in Spain. I will forever feel spoiled and grateful that my dad was able to come.
We last saw Mr. H together in summer of 2003 to look at Spain pictures. So… we hadn’t seen him in over 10 years until this Saturday! We only chatted for 15-20 minutes, but it was so nice! The warmth, happiness, passion and everything I remembered about him was still there. I also think I got to see a bit of a silly side I didn’t see as much in school.
Anyway, he said the nicest thing to us when he left. He told me that he could see what a special relationship my dad and I had when we were in Spain together, and that he was so happy to see us out, the two of us, keeping that going. Gosh, that just made my heart melt. It was such a nice thing to say. So of course, I had to brag on my dad real quick and say how he started running and now we get even more one on one time together, which I love and appreciate so much.
So yeah. That’s who I would want to run in to. I hope I do again. I sent him a Facebook request. Ha!
Themocracy
That’s a wonderful story. And I can see that Mr. H was quite the cool guy with his beard and long hair! That is really appalling though that your teachers only taught for half the class and let you do “homework” in class. I had a lot of really good academic teachers in high school. My history teacher was my fave.
I am happy I am not the only one who finds it appalling. I hope that is not the case in most schools!
Aww! He sounds like a great teacher! I’m so glad you got to catch up with him. My band teacher from HS is one I love to see. I usually run into him every 4th of July when we are in our hometown.
Kevin and I ran into our HS chemistry teacher over Christmas (he was also awesome and oddly, kind of looks like your dad!) He didn’t even recognize Kevin! Oops!
Yay! I love that you still get to see your band teacher!
Ha ha ha – that’s funny he kind of looks like my dad! I wonder why he didn’t recognize Kevin! The beard? I bet he was excited to hear what Kevin is up to 🙂
haha actually during our conversation he never realized it WAS Kevin. 🙂 Oops. He thought Kev was just some random dude I married. Kev I guess didn’t have the heart to correct him and make him feel dumb.
The moral is that I am obviously the more memorable one. 🙂
Ha ha ha! Indeed it is!
Awww, how cool! I agree, you and your dad do have a really cool relationship. It’s awesome that you do get to spend so much time together and are so close 🙂
I actually had a lot of really great teachers in high school (which is kind of amazing considering all the crap they probably had to deal with – teaching at a private, Catholic school came with tons of drama!), but my two most favorite are probably my sophomore and senior religion teacher, Ms. D.,and my orchestra/music teacher, Lisa (she was THAT cool that we all called her by her first name!). They both went well above and beyond their duties as a teacher and were always so supportive to us girls, staying late just to chat or talk through problems with us. I still keep in touch with Lisa, and am actually trying to squeeze in a coffee date with her when I’m home this weekend. I hope Mr. H accepts your friend request 🙂
Thank you 🙂
That is awesome you had such great teachers! I had one during my sophomore year that I would kind of hang around to chat with – it’s so great when they take their personal time to chat with you. Because a lot of crazy sh*t goes on in HS 😉 And how cool that you guys were on a first name basis with Lisa and that you still chat with her!!!!
I am curious about your religion class – dumb question, but was it to study Catholicism, like Bible study, or do they ever talk about other religions?
Hmm…. we had different types of religion classes each semester. I did take a class called World Religions, where we learned about other faiths. And I remember taking theology and morality classes (it totally worked, haha), but I can’t remember the other types of religion classes I took. I didn’t take anything that just studied Catholicism, since I had already learned plenty about that going to a Catholic grade school. The one time I did take a Bible class it was in college, where we looked at it on a literary basis.
Oh and I meant to say, on Spanish teachers, I had Sister Gonda for 2 years of Spanish in high school. She was crazy strict and pretty much no one liked her. But I ended up having her again for my second year of spanish in college…. after she had left the nunnery! She was so laid back and fun then, it was so strange to see the difference in her personality.
Ahh, interesting! Thanks for taking the time to explain that. I was curious 🙂 Morality class. I wonder what that was like.
Ha ha! Too funny. What’s up with that, Sister G?! 🙂
Morality was pretty cool, in that we just debated everything. Until we got to the abortion debate – supporting that was definitely frowned upon.
It was pretty funny – Sister G, who changed her name back to Beverly, was BFFs with my pediatrician (b/c Toledo is so small), and they were regulars at the ice cream place I worked at over the summers. I just about died the first time they pulled up in Bev’s red sports car.
I love this story. 🙂 I had an amazing high school English teacher (Mrs. Ellis). While I always knew I was probably going to study reading/writing, she only served to encourage that passion! I was exposed to some really amazing contemporary literature in her class–not just the same old dusty classics. (which is part of why I still have not read The Scarlet Letter!) And I ROCKED the AP English exam thanks in part to her!!
We corresponded on and off through my time in college, and I ran into her now and again when I was in Ohio. Sadly the last time I saw her was my childhood friend’s wedding reception many years ago…I’ve pretty much lost track of her since.
Hm, maybe I should see if she’s on Facebook!
You should see if she is on Facebook! I wonder if she is still teaching! I love that you got to read more contemporary stuff! You are NOT missing out with The Scarlet Letter. Heh heh heh.
I struggled a little bit in college because of dumbing down. I think when I was at my HS, they had a really excellent honors/AP program, but the “normal” classes were probably pretty dumbed down. I took a lot of honors/AP, and got good grades, but yeah, I wasn’t very good at stuyding or writing papers my freshman year and was in danger of losing my scholarship if I didn’t pull up my grades (I did and ended up graduating cum laude).
ANYWHO, I actually ran into one of my HS teachers a couple years ago at Waterfall Glen. It was nice to chat with him. Anyway, I had a reallllly nerdy math teacher for two years (like, makes Ben Stein’s character from Ferris Bueller look hip) but I looooved math and I loved the way he taught (so straight forward and routine) so I’ve always had a soft spot for him. I would probably be excited to run into him. There was a rumor going around a few years ago that he died, but I couldn’t find an obit or funeral info, so hopefully he didn’t.
I am happy to hear it was not just my school. When I wrote that I was thinking about how AP History was challenging… but that we did not have a very good AP program. And maybe math was better, but I didn’t go beyond a few days of pre-calc. I am happy you were able to overcome it and keep your scholarship!
Oooo! Are you going to try to look up that math teacher? I hope the rumor is not true!
I searched his last name on legacy.com and nothing came up, so I’ll take that as a good sign!
Sweetest story ever! We all need a Mr. H! OMG my high school was so hard, college was a freaking cake walk in comparison. Only one teacher I’d want to run into would be Mr. Davis, my Art teacher. I had him freshman year and the class was filled with burnouts (do they still have those??) in for a blow-off class. But we learned a ton and Mr. D had the best outlook on life. I came back in subsequent years for drawing, painting, ceramics, all of it.
Aww man, that is funny we had complete opposite experiences! Hee hee. And I think burnouts still do exist. For sure. And they are definitely in art class 😉
This is such a great story! And even if your high school was easy at least they had something in place so you could travel to Spain! Or was that something your teacher put together just on his own?
Anyway, I had some good teachers in high school who actually challenged me. As someone who always found school pretty easy I appreciated it when I had a teacher who made me work for a good grade (I highly suspect some of them just knew I was a good student and gave me A’s so that they could deal with the kids who weren’t doing very well). My favorite teacher, Mr. Valentine, taught psychology. He passed away when I was in college and I remember how hard I cried when my mom told me. He was tough but everyone liked him.
I think the Spanish class went to Spain though a tour group every two years. Maybe the French class went to France, too? I am not so sure. 🙂
It must be frustrating for teachers to have such a variety of students, when they have so many, anyway!