BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???

Subject: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Bobert
Date: 03 Apr 12 - 10:31 PM

Well, last night i was Googling weird stuff and Googled up the high school I got kicked out of and found that my 11th grade chemistry teacher, Mrs, Rooney, was still alive and kicking at 101 years old and, according to the report, still sharp as a tack so...

...I was in chemistry about two weeks when I discovered that me and chem weren't gonna be friends so...

...I asked Mrs Rooney if we could "make a deal"... I told her that if she would give me a "D" that I'd help her clean stuff and she took me up on the deal... Yup, spent he entire year cleaning thousands of test tubes and cleaning lab tables and she gave me my "D"...

Just fired off a letter to her this evening...

You???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: alanabit
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 03:44 AM

Ken Aspinall, who taught me French for my last two years at school, was also the first to teach a German course there. As a result of that, I tried (badly) to speak the language with a young German, who was doing voluntary work at a hospital, where I worked for two and a half years in the seventies. Gerd has long since been my best friend and this led to my first forays into Köln and the world of busking. It is a chain of events, which I never could have forseen, but when I go back to Cornwall now, I always look up Ken and go for a pint.
At college, I met Geoff Sutton, my writing tutor, who had the gift of being able to cut straight to the chase and dissect my work without a hint of malice. He was (and still is) interested in everything from sport, to politics, to music (he may know as much about rock music as I do - but he also knows about jazz, classical and folk music too) and any number of subjects. He was still hill walking and driving around Europe in his seventies. He is one of the most alert, compassionate and critical people whom I have ever met.
I count myself as very lucky to know these two men.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Musket
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 05:05 AM

I can't remember her name but she was an English teacher at the right time to awaken something in me. No, not a love of prose, but me being 13 or so and my balls starting to drop...

That's why.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 06:06 AM

Mrs. Smallworth, our English teacher, because she was kind, gentle and loved us, as children. She always had time for us, never was unkind to us, never belittled or humiliated us.   

ALL teachers should be like Mrs. Smallworth, for they make Children's Spirit's Shine!   :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: LilyFestre
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 08:16 AM

I have two favorites:

Brian Stahler, high school English and Dr. Janet Fuller, Elementary Education professor.

I love these two teachers because they were passionate about what they taught and they made me work. :)

Michelle who loves a teacher that challenges her

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 08:19 AM

Pretty much all of them. The Christian Brothers (FSC, not Irish) put the polish on what the nuns (SSND) had started. Then college, where I found out that I wasn't cut out for theoretical chemistry and that a computer (now) can do what I couldn't do and do it better and faster.

By grad school I'd matured a LOT, because that came after a stint where people shot at me. Some folks there had a problem with me "If I need programming done I'll hire a programmer, not do it myself" philosophy, but they were students and not the profs. 3.75/4.00 GPA in grad school....

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 08:25 AM

I was extremely lucky in all my schools to have excellent teachers who were academically competent and vocationally gifted. I've never forgotten any of them, although I suppose they're no longer with us! But my all-time favourite was Mr Frank Taylor. He just oozed wisdom and kindness, humour and goodness. I was eight years old and rather timid, but he encouraged and reassured me with utmost patience. As a teacher myself, I appreciate even more the great efforts they all made, it isn't an easy job by any means!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 08:37 AM

Anne Sexton was my 9th grade English teacher. No, not Anne Sexton, the famous poet. Another one. I didn't learn anything exceptional from her, nor was she a source of tremendous inspiration. It's just kinda cool to be able to say, "Anne Sexton was my 9th grade English teacher," at parties.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Becca72
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 09:42 AM

Senora McCarthy, my high school Spanish teacher. She was kind and compassionate and loved what she did. She brought me out of my shell (I was an extremely shy child)and encouraged us all to do our best. I graduated 22 years ago and I still have dinner with her once or twice a year.

The other would be Mr. Briggs, my 5th grade teacher. He had a wonderful sense of humor and made learning FUN. Sadly, he died suddenly a couple of years ago at the age of 51 or 52.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 10:16 AM

Mrs. Kelley, my 4th grade teacher introduced me to poetry with little excerpts all around her classroom, on the blackboards, on the bulletin board, everywhere. She was the one I showed my 1st poem to at age 9 (which I still have). And Mr. Drew, my Problems of Democracy teacher in high school, who inspired me to think about problems of democracy and enjoy intellectual discussions.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 10:17 AM

Ooops. On a different computer, the uncookied Barbara Shaw

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 10:18 AM

Harold Flatley (Harry Flash!) Maths and general sciences. He brought out the best in everyone and made learning fun. The scorch marks were still on the ceiling from the coal-gas filled soap bubbles when I went years later :-) And I can still remember that coal gas is lighter than air!

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 11:24 AM

In 1948, aged seven, I was nearly blind, and had a very serious operation followed by two years of visits, three times per week, to the Western Ophthalmic Hospital in London, visits which took the whole day.

The result of this was that, in 1951, at the age of ten, I was over a year adrift in my learning and approaching the dreaded eleven plus without hope of a pass.

My teacher was a rather stern and forbidding lady, Mrs Crane, who called my mother in to school and told her that I "could, and would, pass that exam".

For the whole of that year, she gave up her lunch breaks, an extra hour after school every day and two hours every Saturday at my home.

She even gave me lessons through the final summer break, and when the exam results came in and I had won a scholarship to one of the three top grammar schools in London, she was jumping up and down in pure delight.

Every other child in the school was a bit in awe of her, but I adored her, and whatever success I have had in life, I owe to her dedication and belief in my abilities. I went back to visit only once and never found out what happened in her life, which is one of my abiding regrets.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 11:36 AM

My goodness Don, what wonderful commitment and dedication that lady had! She had her reward in your success.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 11:47 AM

In continuation of my post above...

Anne Sexton was My Ninth Grade English Teacher

Anne Sexton was my ninth grade English teacher.
Or maybe it was eleventh grade.
I'm not really sure.
I know it wasn't tenth grade or twelfth grade.
It doesn't matter.
Ninth grade, fourteen years old,
Eleventh grade, sixteen years old,
A bag of raging hormones either way, huh?
Let's call it ninth grade for the sake of argument.

I guess I did that on purpose, didn't I?
Saying "Anne Sexton was my ninth grade English teacher,"
Instead of "My ninth grade English teacher was named Anne Sexton?"
They say the same thing,
But they don't mean the same thing, do they?

As you've probably deduced, the Anne sexton who was my ninth grade English teacher
Was not the famous Anne Sexton,
Not the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Anne Sexton,
Not the multiple-volumes-of-verse-publishing Anne Sexton,
Not the pill-popping, booze-swilling Anne Sexton,
Not the manic-depressive Anne Sexton,
Not the suicide-committing Anne Sexton,
But another Anne Sexton.

That's not to say with 100% certainty that the Anne Sexton who was my English teacher
Wasn't pill-popping, booze-swilling, manic-depressive, or suicide-committing,
Only that, if she was, she wasn't famously so.
Her pill-popping, booze-swilling, or suicide-committing didn't make the papers.

Poet Anne Sexton was from Massachusetts.
Teacher Anne Sexton was from somewhere in the Deep South,
Though she tried her best to hide the fact by adopting a soft-spoken, finishing school voice.
But every now and then some kid would get her goat and she'd drop the genteel affectation
And lay into him with the vocal equivalent of a double-barreled twelve-gauge shotgun,
Both barrels fully loaded with red-dirt hill-country drawl.

Poet Anne Sexton was born in 1928.
I don't know with certainty when teacher Anne Sexton was born,
But I'm sure it was long after 1928.
She was a hottie.
Poet Anne Sexton would have been almost forty when I was in high school.
Teacher Anne Sexton was only in her twenties,
Young enough to inflame the gonads of male students.

Poet Anne Sexton worked as a model in her younger days.
Teacher Anne Sexton worked as a model, as well,
Mainly on weekends, when she wasn't teaching us how to diagram sentences.
As already stated, she was a hottie.
In fact, while the photographs I've seen of the younger Poet Anne Sexton
Don't much resemble what I remember of Teacher Anne Sexton,
Photos of the older Poet Anne Sexton look remarkably like
What I imagine Teacher Anne Sexton would have looked like
At the same age.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 12:04 PM

Interesting that so many are English teachers as in my case also. I went from a middle school Catholic system to the public high school. I was put in the "dumb" section. I was very dyslectic. At that time you are just dumb as the other kids would say. My English teacher Ms Dean saw something no one else did, she told the principal to test me. They gave me a series of IQ tests then came back and said "you are off the scale you can be anything you want, doctor, scientist" I went from dumb to gifted in a flick of a pen ... go figure, that messed me up a bit, but if she had not done what she did, things would be different for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Bobert
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 01:19 PM

Interesting, ol'ster...

For me, it was my 3rd grade teacher, Miss Dial... I am also lexdexic (BTW, ain't no "was" about the stuff) and couldn't read a lick in the 3rd Grade but I could draw better than anyone and told a mighty fine lie (as in stories)... So Miss Dial took me under her wing and got me half reading... I'm still working on the second half...

I do remember when I was like 14 and a bunch of us were back in the woods with some firecrackers... Well, little did I know but we were technically on Miss Dial's property and she came back there and worked us over purdy good... And, yeah, she knew exactly that it was me and called me by name and told me to come outta the woods or she'd come in there and drag me out... So I come outta them woods and she sat me down and give me a good workin' over... That was right embarrassing 'cause she didn't mess with any of my friends who kinda made their way out of the woods without no workin' over...

B:~(

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST,Kendall
Date: 04 Apr 12 - 08:06 PM

I had two. A woman named Rachael Higgins, she got me interest3ed in folk music, and a man named Ralph Hayward who taught senior math.
He sparked an interest in learning in general.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: banjoman
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 05:43 AM

Brother Buttermere (Christian Brother -Irish) He was the only one of that shower of bastards who didnt believe in the premise "Spare the rod and spoil the child" He took us for football, geography and maths and never raised his voice. He gave a lot of time to getting involved in games and debating. As for the others - enough said

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 07:41 AM

It was a teacher in the last year of my Primary school his name was Mr. Ayton. He just had a way of bringing out the best in everyone and made each pupil feel special and important. In contrast to the previous teacher the year before who was an absolute witch. Mrs Whittings was her name and she was a nastiest judgmental cruel bully who took pride in ridiculing any pupil that she took a distate too including the children she singled out for having free school meals. Thank God Mr. Ayton was the teacher in the final year at that school before moving on to High School.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: theleveller
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 08:29 AM

The best teacher I had was my maternal grandfather, the ultimate autodidact who left school at the age of 12 but spent his entire life reading and learning - right up to his death at the age of 94. From him I got an insatiable thirst for knowledge that even the stupidity and brutality of my grammar school teachers couldn't quench.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: theleveller
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 08:34 AM

From my paternal grandfather I got all the totally disreputable but thoroughly enjoyable traits that make life worth living. Best of both worlds, really!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Midchuck
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 09:03 AM

I've been married for almost 45 years to my favorite teacher.

She's taught me a lot, albeit I never was in one of her classes.

P.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 09:06 AM

Okay, Mudchuck... Now that you have sucked up to the wife (lol) tell us your 2nd favorite teacher...

B:~)

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 03:21 PM

I was very fortunate to have excellent teachers in public schools, with only a couple of "underachievers" who were assigned to courses that didn't really matter much. (Driver Ed, & the like, maybe.)

It seems a little unfair to single out one, but my absolute favorite would have to be "Tillie" who gave us a course called "Modern World Problems" for which the basic question was "Explain WWII."

I'm still working on it. Although I've expanded a little beyond that specific era the problems are still just as "modern" and still pretty much the same ones as they were then.

Of course "Dorothy" deserves a special mention for taking an interest in expanding my interests in literature.

And there's Bob Timmons, the track & cross country coach who made me do a little more than I really had the talent for - but who left us prematurely to later become head track coach at K.U. in order to help some people with real talent.

Unfortunately my own kids didn't seem quite as fortunate when they got into the same school system a little later. I never really figured out whether it was the teachers, or if they just broke the system - although I have some ideas about it.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Janie
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 08:57 PM

Meryl Shank. I had him for Calculus, Physics, Mechanical Drawing and what we pretended was an independent studies class in philosophy with 2 other students who were also odd birds in a small, homegenous community in rural WV. He taught mostly advanced math and physics classes, but also vocational and shop classes. He was a mentor to many across the academic spectrum over the years. He was interested in fostering and empowering the whole person. He planted the seeds that over time helped me to be OK with being a bit different - to be comfortable being uncomfortable for not fitting in. He did the same for many kids over the years. He died the spring of 1970, the year after I graduated from high school. I still visit his grave a couple of times a year, to remind myself of how fortunate I was to have had his influence in my life.

Like others, I was fortunate to have had a lot of good and gifted teachers, and there are a few others that exerted especially positive lasting influence. Mr.Shank was the best of the best.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Bobert
Date: 05 Apr 12 - 09:42 PM

Sniff...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Nigel Paterson
Date: 06 Apr 12 - 04:24 AM

My favourite teacher was Dave Brown...he taught me French. He was one of the only teachers who didn't hit me, humiliate me, throw chalk at me & generally abuse me for their own sadistic ends. Mr.Brown taught French very well. I can still communicate confidently more than 50 years later when I venture across the Channel. Thank you Mr.Brown.
                                                                      Nigel.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Crowhugger
Date: 06 Apr 12 - 11:11 PM

Mrs. Clark in grade 5. She brought creatures from her farm and home pet-erie including her parrot that ate peanut butter off a spoon he held in one foot; he tossed the spoon out of his cage when done.

Most notably: That year she borrowed an incubator from the Central Experimental Farm of the National Research Council; and she got 24 fertilized chicken eggs from the CEF too. The incubator lived in our classroom and the class studied eggs as they grew. Once hatched we cared for the chickens for the rest of the year. There were enough chickens that hatched and enough weekends remaining in the school year that the whole class got to chicken-sit for at least one weekend. I still remember taking Plum out for a bike ride that weekend; she stayed roosted on the handlebars with no problem once she got the hang of it (there were a couple of wing flaps at first). I felt very lucky to get her for Easter weekend, which meant four whole days to have her at home.

All went well with Plum until the Tuesday morning going back to school. It was April 1st and my best friend was sure I was playing an April fool's joke on her when I phoned her to come and help me carry the bird and cage and food back to school. Finally she helped but not until she saw me struggling down the street with the chicken in a carry box under one arm and the collapsible cage under the other. At 9 years old I would get maybe 5 steps before I had to rest and regroup. Yes we walked. No one ever thought of driving the kids to school in our neighbourhood.

The other amazing thing in Mrs. Clark's class that year: She arranged a visit from Al Oeming with his pet cheetah from "Al Oeming's Alberta Game Farm." Somehow that wasn't as big a deal as having the chicken at home for 4 whole days. Go figure.

Mrs. Clark made everything come alive, not just Science (with all her animals) and Social Studies, which she also made wonderful but she also encouraged my love of writing and drawing. I'm pretty sure she had that effect on most or all of the class.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Apr 12 - 12:01 AM

I had mostly wonderful teachers and, in fact, the system was so good when I was in jr. and sr. high school, I got the equivalent of a nowadays college education and then some.

Mr. Grassfield who taught English and Literature was challenging and pulled no punches, BUT, at the end of the year, he also gave me his stamp collection! I was in advanced classes and the only one permitted to take two foreign languages (Latin and German." Mr G. got us each a subscription to a young adult's version of the Atlantic Monthly which really impressed me at the time.

Our orchestra and my private violin teacher, Mr. Ashley, was a hottie and so kewl. He transcribed Love Is Blue for us that year as we begged him to. I know he got it off the radio and handed us his handwritten parts. I just recently found out he and my childhood doctor who also delivered my kids, are both still playing in the local symphony. Two of only four founding members still performing.

I learned so much from all of my teachers, but my fav. has to be Mrs. Finn. She came to me in the middle of my junior year when I got kicked out of school for getting pregnant and married. God forbid anyone should see me in school in that condition. So, she came to my house and home-schooled me for the rest of the year, right through and after the birth of my son. I finished that year because of her. She was the kindest, non-judgemental teacher I'd ever known. She was perfect for me for that time in my life.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 07 Apr 12 - 06:17 AM

Like you, kat, I feel that the education I was so lucky to receive in Primary and Secondary School was as good as a College education nowadays. Standards were very high then, the pupils paid attention and worked hard, and discipline was never a problem. What has gone wrong?

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: alanabit
Date: 07 Apr 12 - 06:39 AM

Eliza - that is a big question, which people write books trying to answer. However, I taught in German "Gymnasium" for five and a half years, which I can say was a pleasure. The pupils were polite, well behaved and generally committed. The staff were friendly, competent and supportive. I was teaching in good schools in the best part of the system, I admit. However, it is worth noting that parts of the school system can still work. (I live in Germany).
My personal view is that what comes out of schools largely depends upon what goes into them. If parents send loved, properly fed and socialised children into schools in the first place, the schools can help them to develop. I do not go along with the philosophy that schools are there to alleviate the damage caused by a lack of - or bad - parenting.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Midchuck
Date: 07 Apr 12 - 09:52 AM

Okay, Mudchuck... Now that you have sucked up to the wife (lol) tell us your 2nd favorite teacher...

B:~)

Actually, Bobert, she hasn't seen it. She doesn't follow Mudcat except when I point it out to her. There are some of us who are actually fond of our wives.

I didn't like many of my teachers much. They would all say, "You're getting Bs and Cs, and you're smarter than that. You should be doing "A" work!" I'd ask, "Why?" They wouldn't tell me, they'd just be disgusted with me for being lazy. I couldn't get them to understand that I wasn't all that smart, I just had a talent for IQ tests.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Apr 12 - 06:01 PM

I just spoke to Mr. Ashley, my old orchestra teacher! Had a really nice chat & found out he is now fiddling and there is an Irish session twice per month at an Irish pub downtown! If Rog and I can muster some extra energy we may just go next week to check it out! Haven't spoken with him in over 40 years! Of course I told him about Mudcat, you all, and this thread.

katlaughingforjoy!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Bobert
Date: 11 Apr 12 - 08:34 PM

Well, I haven't heard from Mrs Mooney but I sent a copy of the letter I sent her to my mom and she loved it...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: Beer
Date: 11 Apr 12 - 11:34 PM

Bobert,
Would you mind if I started a thread about the "Worst Teacher" and Why?
I don't want to take away from your very positive thread but there is another side.


I had three that helped me.
Adrien

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 12 Apr 12 - 12:09 AM

Mrs. Kiritsis.
I was in third grade and did not know why I was so consumed.
Did not eat or sleep.
I was in third grade love and had no idea.
Now I understand, and wish I knew where she is right now (it has been 40 years so the mental fantasies are certainly absurd).
But it is one more reason to exist.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: fat B****rd
Date: 14 Apr 12 - 03:37 PM

My grammer school Maths teacher was a Scottish gentleman who wore lovely tweed suits with 'football' buttons and -in retrospect -reminds me of the late actor Ian Bannen. I was idly dreadful at Maths but once solved a homework problem in a totally different method to the rest of the class. When I left school, under a moderate cloud, he was kind enough to shake my hand and tell me "Stenger, you're hopeless at Maths, but you're a good lad".

A couple of years later James 'Jock' Roberts burnt himself to death in some woods near Grimsby.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Apr 12 - 11:55 PM

fB, that is so sad!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST,Hookey Wole
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 01:08 AM

1969 - 70.

The new young male progressive primary school teacher
who had fresh enthusiasm for the job and something to prove.
He recognized potential in 10 year old me;
encouraging and indulging my creative writing
and setting up after school hobby clubs & projects
that gave me opportunities to take on responsibility
and boost my self esteem.
I believe it was his first year as a Teacher
and maybe he made something of a project of me.

I was one of the select few from our school and council estate
who passed the 11 plus 'passport to a better life' at Grammar School.


1976 - 77

The elderly woman 6th Form college English teacher, close to retirement.
She had a soft spot for me.
My prowess at writing and my fluid command of vocabulary and grammar was at it's peak.
She also indulged me, seeming to delight in my attempts to subvert every formal written exercise with as much surreal nonsense & flippant flights of fancy as I could possibly get away with.
Her years of experience of 17 year olds in our town
had probably alerted her to my after school rock band activities
and dawning experimental enthusiasm for dope & mushrooms.
Later in the year closer to 'A levels',
it must have become quite apparent that I was losing my focus
and sliding towards failure.
She took me to one side after last class, doing her best to guide me back,
showing genuine affection and concern for my future.
Trying to motivate me to work harder to become the full time writer
she knew I had talent to be.
I let her down badly.

My exam results were passes, but much worse grades than my parents and College had long hoped for.

I was an 18 year old punk band guitarist in a run down provincial town and I didn't care.


..and here I am now still awake at gone 5 in the morning struggling clumsily to organise and express ideas
in language that no longer comes easily to mind.
It took most of this afternoon to remember one word
that was on the tip of my tongue but too far out of reach..

Proves if you don't use it, you lose it.

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 03:07 AM

I have to once again mention my Junior High Social Studies teacher, Richard Westhoven. He introduced me to Bob Dylan (The Times They Are a-Changin') as well as Tom Lehrer (That Was the Year That Was). Mr. Westhoven had been involved with the Freedom Riders and other risky political ventures. He dared to tell us when a teacher was dismissed for suspicion of being a Communist. He gave us invaluable insight into the "founding fathers" and encouraged us to always question the "official story." It was the mid-1960s and he looked like what we now call a "nerd" (short hair, black-rim glasses, skinny tie, etc.). He was, however, one of the hippest guys I've ever known. I've tried to find him for years just to say "thanks." It's hard to sum up the good stuff about such an individual. Hope to see him on the other side someday. God bless Mr. Westhoven!

Subject: RE: BS: Favorite Teacher & Why???
From: s&r
Date: 15 Apr 12 - 06:24 AM

Brailsford was his name - rich deep Yorkshire accent; he used to recite poetry to us, notably Adlestrop (Thomas)

Yes, I remember Adlestrop --
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop -- only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.


If you're a Tyke try it

Stu