Saturday, October 10, 2009

Past and Present Teachers

For everybody who attended school in Jefferson (or still is), how about giving us the name of your favorite teacher, or passing on some related anecdotes?

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ray Dillard--- the guy was a classic, great teacher and even had a carpeted classroom. Always had to pick up the itsy bitsys off the floor before leaving class. Question his sexuality all you want, he gave a darn. More than 90% of the teachers there today.

Braxton Hicks said...

Ray Dillard had a long and illustrious career in the Jefferson schools being an excellent teacher of literature in junior high. There are others deserving of recognition. Gustava Price ran a tight ship teaching History as well as inspiring me to travel the world as she did. Melba Cripe taught English and I learned so much in her Speech class. Beryl Morden taught typing, something I have used everyday of my life. It helped me in the Army where I increased my speed significantly. I continue to use it often typing comments such as these on the internet.

Braxton Hicks

Diamond Dave said...

Miss Esther Dayhuff was my favorite. She taught 2nd grade in the mid 60's. She had been a nun. She made learning fun. She quizzed us at the chalkboard.
She introduced me to the Guinness Book of World Records, which I was fascinated by.

A couple of days ago I was singing the fun little ditty, "John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith" to myself (it sounds much better that way). I learned that from Mrs. Lois Bills, my 4th grade teacher. That was 3 or 4 years after 2nd grade.

Ray Dillard would use spelling words in a sentence to put them in context. For "reindeer" he said, 'Mrs. Claus said to Santa, "Come out of the rain, dear."' Evidently, global warming was an issue much earlier than we realized.

There were two Dave's in my 8th grade English class with Mrs. Parrish. We were never sure which one of us she was asking a Q, with her glass eye.

I got a big kick out of Miss Melba Cripe's wry smile and sense of humor. After reading short stories and wondering what they meant, she did a great job of explaining things.


I wrote a theme about conservation and made a mean throw away line about Miss Sue Gaard, the librarian who had to teach sophomore American History.
I showed a friend how clever I was and he handed it to Miss Gaard, 5 minutes before it would have been safe in Miss Cripe's hands. She almost cried. We took a lot of notes in her class, and she took some guff for it. I still take a lot of notes, I remember things better that way.

My nephew has said what a good golf coach John Rowland is. He doesn't give too much advice, but what he does give, works well.

Tars Tarkus said...

I've thought about this quite a bit this weekend. I can honestly say that not one teacher at Jefferson ever inspired me. In fact, I do not think I had a teacher ever give me a compliment! In college, instructors went out of their way consistently to inspire and add confidence. At Jefferson, well my guess is, that the teachers determined early on that I was not college material. Why would they waste their time and effort on a poor kid?

As for Ray Dillard...I thought he was mediocre at best. Junior High Literature - not exactly the toughest subject to teach. Especially after the first thirty years or so...

Anonymous said...

Frank Porter was the loudest teacher I had. Bob Lutz actually taught SPELLING! Mr. Rowland taught us all about South America - no one ever taught us about North America. Tony Andrusyk didn't teach me anything at all. Dale Allensworth was my favorite high school teacher.

Marty Bryant said...

I got an "A" for the semester In Tony's biology class for cleaning out his fish tank. So there.

Anonymous said...

Dick Brunner was the best teacher that I can recollect having. Even though he has a tendency to lose control of his classroom at times, it is a class that I always looked forward to and actually learned quite a bit. Later on, he played me many times in tennis at Russell Park. Does anyone know what he is doing these days?

Kyle Durlam said...

Gotta give props to Ray Dillard. He had that typewriter that had blank keys. I was so impressed by that, and vowed to one day be able to type on such a device.

And then, If the class was even a little out of hand and he had been out of the classroom for a few minutes, on his return he would always give a quick 2 claps followed by a stern, nasally "Hey!"

Also, if he spotted anyone with their finger up their nose, he could never resist: "You digging for gold, Mr. so and so?"

Also loved Jim North. He taught English, but spent varying amounts of time on the subject of baseball. Love that. In fact, for a while, I wanted to become a teacher when I grew up because I dug him so much.

Special credit goes to

Frank Porter,

Lutz,

8th grade science teacher, can't remember his name, drove a big ole Ford pick up truck. Once dipped a racquet ball into liquid nitrogen (with tongs, of course) and then quickly and abruptly threw it over our heads and against the back wall. It shattered like glass. I'll never forget that.

Ohlendorf was a fave, too, but only as a teacher, not as a football coach.

John Rowland

Mrs Lane and Mrs Zinnel in 1st and 2nd grades, respectively.... like them a lot, too.

Rick Bland said...

Excellent post, Kyle. I had forgotten some of those traits of Ray Dillard's. I didn't have those teachers in the lower grades, but I can remember Mr. Menz and his frozen tennis ball trick. I'd guess he did that every year.

One teacher we have overlooked so far is Mr. Smith, who taught high school physics and chemistry. I had the opportunity to have breakfast with him last week in Des Moines and he is still an extremely personable and well-spoken man. He will always be a favorite (he doesn't remember sending me to the principal's office for disrupting class).

Anonymous said...

I am certain Brunner still lives across from the tennis court and still has the same el camino. He is a super guy.

Anonymous said...

Does Glen Camp ring a bell. The most imitated teacher ever.

Anonymous said...

John Barber, former teacher and principal at the Cooper school, was another teacher who influenced many students with his unconventional style. He will always be a favorite teacher in my book.

john said...

Mrs. Wannel, Mrs. Anderson, Mrs. Shearer, Mrs. Gorman, Can't remember 5th grade, Mr. Barber, Mr. Allensworth, Mr. Lutz, Mr. Menz... High School was a blur.... Except for Tony Andrusyk. All Right!, Who spilled the Parameeeesiums? lol

Marty Bryant said...

When I was in high school, I spent many hours learning from Jack Oatts. The thing I remember the most was that when asked, he would swear up and down that the Beatles never wrote any of their songs. The songs were written by a ghostwriter and they merely performed them. Knowing Jack and the contacts he had, I would have to say he would have known.

Anonymous said...

Jack Oatts was obviously an idiot if he truly believed that the Beatles didn't write any of their songs. Or, perhaps, he knew how gullible and/or stupid his music students actually were. Take your pick.

Jack Oatts was a music teacher in a small, musically insignificant town in west central Iowa. For him to know anything about the Beatles is laughable.

What's next? Men never walked on the moon?

D. Bentz said...

It has been proven beyond all doubt that man never actually walked on the moon.

Anonymous said...

That's a bogus statement. The only doubt is in the minds of conspiracy theorists and the mentally challenged. In a battle of intellect, I'd pick a box of rocks over you, D. Bentz. You are dangerously stupid.

Diamond Dave said...

I too would pick a box of rocks over Dick Bentz, but that is bcz I believed he died. (Tars T. was telling me that in the Middle East a box of rocks is preferable to intellect in many a battle. At least I think that was his point.)Since "Big Jake" I try to be careful making that statement (about D. Bentz's death.)

To defend the conspiracy theorists I believe JFK's (the sr. senator from MA, John F. Kerry's older brother) assasin was Mr.Roy Oswalt the Houston hurler with a Mannlicher pea-shooter from the library's attic with assistance from Mr. Green from behind the fence.

And let's not combine "dangerously" with "stupid". Most of the truly dangerous people I've heard of are really quite clever and are in the halls of Congress defending my health or conscientously looking after our money supply at the Fed.

Anonymous said...

If someone told D. Bentz that he could fly like a bird (or that man has never walked on the moon), he just might believe it. The next thing you know, he's standing atop of some church believing that God will cushion his fall, catch him in His arms. That's where the dangerous and stupid come together, a messy blob on the sidewalk.

As far as our elected government officials go, greed is the name of the game. That's a whole nother topic.

D. Bentz said...

Once again, we see that individuals whom we otherwise consider intelligent find it very easy to call people names, but rather difficult to form substantive arguments. I disagree with them, so I am a "box of rocks", yet they are unable to clarify their viewpoint. It is no wonder that some of us find it hard to be on their side.

Anonymous said...

Your statement "It has been proven beyond all doubt that man never actually walked on the moon." is idiotic. It's not been proven at all. If you believe such nonsense, then all it proves to me is that you never really did any research on the topic other than to read what the conspiracy theorists put out. Each and every one of your reasons for you to believe "why men never walked on the moon" are easily rebutted. Just look for them on the internet. NASA has a nice website.

Big Nasty said...

Everyone knows that the "moon landing" was a facade meant to keep Communist forces at bay during the depths of the "Cold War." The Saturn 5 rockets involved were actually a clever attempt by Ted Kennedy to sway public opinion away from his gambling habit in Cuba. And the cigars. And the fact that he is stone cold dead. Maybe.

D. Bentz said...

Once again, we see argument devoid of content. "Anonymous" states that "each and every one of my reasons are easily rebutted", yet offers absolutely no rebuttal of any kind and, indeed, has no idea what my reasons are. Instead, he resorts to calling me an idiot and atating that I simply believe something I've apparently read - implying that I am incapable of making up my own mind.

On the other hand, I could argue equally well (it doesn't rquire much effort) that "anonymous" simply believes the documentation that the federal government and space agency has published.

This is a typical debate technique used by certain individuals who attempt to draw you into a debate without having the knowledge or ability to defend their position intellectually. One can find an equal number of internet sites defending my position as well.

Notice that while have attempted to defend myself rationally, I have yet to resort to insults or name-calling. Read into that what you will.

Rick Bland said...

OK, just for the record, I think it is fairly obvious that man has landed on the moon. The scope of the conspiracy involved in pulling off that grand of a deception would be very unrealistic.

On the other hand, a quick look at the "Mars" link on the left-hand side of the Jefferson Iowa News raises a few interesting questions.

Anonymous said...

Rick...I'm going to send the JIN Mars link to http://www.clavius.org but I suspect they will not be able to refute the unassailable evidence that you have put forth. I may have to re-think the whole thing and side with D. Bentz afterall.

D. Bentz said...

Rick -

Just for the record - I stand by my previous statements.