Teachers To Remember

My first grade teacher was a grey haired Mrs. Smith. She was a very typical old school first grade teacher for the 1960's. Second grade belonged to Mrs. Krause, younger and a quite a bit rounder than Mrs. Smith. In third grade my teacher was again a Mrs. Smith. She was definitley an old school teacher and much stricter than either of the previous two. Ms. Turner ran the fourth grade class and I remember her as the prettiest of them all. Yes I was starting to notice these things even in fourth grade. But it was fifth grade that my teacher, again a Mrs. Smith, oldest of them all as she was at least 72 from her own admissions, fostered an enviroment that encouraged us to learn and to take control of our learning. I can recognize now her depth of wisdom that obviously was kindled by her passion to teach. She allowed us to control a couple of hours every week based on what we as a group and individually accomplished through the week. She like all the teachers taught all the required subjects, Math, English, History and Reading. But it was her creative spirit that allowed us as young students to explore beyond what the state of Texas required of fifth grade students in 1970. We started a chess club in her class and you could earn extra playing time by scoring well on quizzes or turning in extra work. Our classroom became a darkroom as she taught us how black and white photos came to life. By the end of the year we published a small humble school paper. The Principle allowed us to use a staff restroom for our darkroom and Mrs. Smith provided us with a twin lens camera. We were junior journalists. It is now almost forty years later and I still remember her blues eyes always lit up behind her glasses, her crooked nose and her stacked up bluish grey hair. This was what made up Mrs. Smith. She taught for the love of teaching long after earning her teachers pension. Thank you Mrs. Smith.