Mrs. D, May You Always Succeed & Prosper

Mrs. D, May You Always Succeed & Prosper, originally uploaded by Reva49.

In 1967, when I was a senior at PHS and not happy at ALL about having to take a boring class on CIVICS(yuck), in waltzed a 22yr old neophyte teacher who proceeded to turn our world upside-down---by teaching us how government REALLY works, and conducting her classes as though we were in LAW school. Tough? Let me tell you, she came at us with questions we had to answer, not from rote, but by THINKING LOGICALLY. Her tests were even WORSE, because she included a 40pt essay question on them that made us demonstrate how well we knew our lessons ,too. We used to joke that not only were her tests IMPOSSIBLE but imPASSIBLE as well. She told us she was going to make us think, and she did! If you were absent for a test, she made you take an ORAL make-up, which insured almost a 90% attendance on test days, as NO one wanted to face down HER after school. She commanded respect and got it, even taking on the school ADMINISTRATION when they told her she couldn't assign 1984 and Brave New World(oddly, not because of the politics so much as for the sex scenes), when those books were assigned anyway by the English teachers. She held her head high and walked like a queen; I can still visualize her ramrod-straight back as she breezed through the halls like Miss America. I wanted sooo much to be like her, believe me. We all were a bit overawed by her complete self-confidence and no-nonsense style. In the parlance of the time, we spoke of her as "thinking like a man", which was a high compliment indeed. She never deferred to the male teachers, either, as woman are wont to do. She was the equal of any man and KNEW it, which sometimes got her labeled as "unlady-like", "opinionated", and just plain "bitchy", too. I worshipped her, myself. Unfortunately, I made a terrible pest of myself by constantly following her about the school(think "Walter Denton" from the old "Our Miss Brooks" TV show). Her dept. head dubbed me her "shadow", and I guess she got ribbed about it by the faculty. I'm sorry for all the trouble I may have given her. She was one of those teachers who turn up once in a lifetime and you're never the same afterwards. I learned so much from her, and not only from the lessons she actually taught but the "lessons" she "taught" by the way she comported herself, spoke with authority, and expected nothing less than success---from us as well as SHE. When I entered my freshman year of college and faced all-essay exams in every subject, her tests stood me in good stead; her tough questions in class taught me how to think "on my feet", as it were, and without her I would never have made it through college. I even took along the notes I'd taken in her classes when(for some stupid reason) the college required us to take American Government, and those notes and what I'd been taught gave me a B, easy, although the prof I had was a hard grader. I often wonder just how many of her students went on to become lawyers(as she did), simply from the way her classes were conducted. I'd be willing to bet a good 40% or more went into Law because of her. I almost did, and even now keep abreast of Supreme Court decisions. A good teacher is a GIFT. As Christa Macauliff so memorably said before the shuttle tragedy: "I am a teacher, I touch the future." The photo here is how Mrs.D looks today, and though she's aged a lot, she's still beautiful to me, and always will be. Thank you, Mrs.D, for all you never knew you did for me. Ironically, it's the smallest gestures that mean so much, and what you no doubt considered to be only "doing your job" taught an immature kid how to be a responsible citizen and an adult. Hazak! May you go "from strength to strength"! (I hate to archive this, as I'm shamelessly hoping she'll stumble across my blog. It's no fun if your idol doesn't notice these things. Sigh)