Cynic, that’s a good one! Teresa is a biologist (there’s Mr. K’s influence again) working on tissue studies last I heard - She should be reading CV!

Forgot to mention that out of the Big 3 from my HS, 2 have passed away recently in ‘99 (English/Vanderbilt PhD & History/Columbia PhD). They were both women, who had “extremely high standards” & held their students to that profile. They had a famous (& infamous) reputation, but in the end we all agreed “in retrospect, they were good for us”. They were “old school”, much like Joanne’s English teacher:

“Discipline Creates Performance”
– commercial for Lance Armstrong, 7-time Tour de France champion
[ his HS experience is interesting..he was ostracized in Plano/TX, because he didn’t “conform” by playing football. To say the least, his HS experience was unpleasant..guess who had the last laugh? He is arguably the greatest American sports figure of all time, a true modern-day American hero..from Texas. To this day, he has rejected any overtures by his HS to come back for a reunion (Unfortunately, he is friends with George Bush & got GWB to ride a Trek mountain bike. Naturally, GWB had a nasty crash on it, as well as wrecking the Segway. Speaks volumes on GWB’s abilities. “Wreck” is the operative word for the Bush Administrations foreign policy) ]

“JoAnne, was it her class where we had to write an essay on how to tie shoe laces and then she’d read each aloud to see how accurate we were?”

That is a great assignment. Similar to what Phaedrus does in “Zen”.

“He told her angrily, “Narrow it down to the front of one building on the main street of Bozeman. The Opera House. Start with the upper left-hand brick.”

Her eyes, behind the thick-lensed glasses, opened wide. She came in the next class with a puzzled look and handed him a five-thousand-word essay on the front of the Opera House on the main street of Bozeman, Montana. “I sat in the hamburger stand across the street,” she said, “and started writing about the first brick, and the second brick, and then by the third brick it all started to come and I couldn’t stop. They thought I was crazy, and they kept kidding me, but here it all is. I don’t understand it.”

“In one class he had everyone write all hour about the back of his thumb. Everyone gave him funny looks at the beginning of the hour, but everyone did it, and there wasn’t a single complaint about “nothing to say.”

Read the whole chapter here:

tinyurl.com/rt76n

“Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well.”
–Aristotle

[ “American educators take this philosophy to heart. they view their jobs as
preparing the citizens of the world’s most influential society.” I am absolutely FURIOUS at the Bush administration for bastardizing the education system with the “passing exams” policy. There was a CBS News interview with 2 Texas HS teachers a few yrs ago, who were frustrated at having to spend $$ on exam-materials nonsense, rather than BOOKS. Any teacher will tell you “grades don’t mean anything”. How does a NUMBER equate to LEARNING? Answer: nothing. Some of the best researchers had mediocre or poor grades. Einstein was one. I read somehwere that M. Franklin/Harvard was a HS dropout. (I find that hard to believe). People tell me she’s enthusiastic (loves her work), & her feistiness (”fighter”, “Victory belongs to the Most Persevering”/Napoleon) was apparent on her “Discovering Women” episode. ]

“A person never stands as tall, as when he kneels to help a child.” I am happy to be among those tonight who stand tall for our children. Thank you very much.”
– saying

[ the CV members made a commitment to Teaching & Research, when they signed on as faculty members. CVJ has some nice posts about his interaction with undergrads (the ones who invited him to the LA Philharmonic) & postdocs. CVJ also has an outreach program in S. Africa, for HS students (?) ]

“We are the music makers [ teachers, musicians, physicists, et al ], and we are the dreamers of the dreams. [ passing along the tradition ]”
– Willy Wonka

I pulled this from somehwere:

…And let’s not overlook the kids themselves, who are also willing to help
in the process. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “I pay the schoolmaster, but it is the school boys who educate my son.”…

“Nothing is more sacred than the Integrity of the Mind”
– Emerson

[ This is essentially a synopsis of any Education program: teaching us HOW to think. A classmate at my 20th reunion told me “It taught us to ask the RIGHT QUESTIONS”. “IT” is referring to our famous high school (which produced 3 Nobel Laureates: Physics ‘76, Literature, Economics ‘82, & George Will of ABCNews), which was on the forefront of developing New HS curriculums in Math (”The New Math”), Science, English, History). Our teachers were all PhDs (or grad students in Education Dept, developing their teaching skills), specialists in Education. Some of you probably used these materials (or further derivatives), especially the New Math. Do a Google search on “Max Beberman”, on of the co-founders of the New Math movement (the other one was G. Polya/Stanford). This is Frank Lloyd Wright’s favorite quote, I got it from the PBS documentary on FLW..do look it up (I have a videotape), it’s quite good. FLW was the greatest American architect, who made a startling comeback in his later years. He was able to compete with the younger guys, & even surpass them. I’m personallly interested in the similarity between modus-operanda in Art & Science..they are both CREATIVE endeavors. I’m trying to develop material that could be used as coursework, for undergrad science majors. CVJ seems to be on the same path, he has had a number of posts, about the Santa Monica art-thing..the one that L. Krauss gave a talk at. The Brian Greene “star” on Hollywood Walk of Fame ]

Shaquille O’Neal (formerly LA Lakers center) & Emmit Smith (Dallas Cowboys running back), both finished up their degrees (LSU & xxx, respectively) after promising their moms they would graduate.

“He [ Bobby Knight/Indiana Univ ] was the ONLY coach who promised my son an education, as well as a basketball scholarship ]
– mother of Isiah Thomas

[ Indiana Unv, Notre Dame, Duke Univ (M. Kryzewski, protege of B. Knight @West Point) have EXTREMELY high graduation rates. They DO put an emphasis on education. B. Knight even taught a cross-disciplinary course in the Chemistry Dept about strategy, something like that. ]

Joanne, you shoulda seen what I did at my 20th reunion. Our president distributed a questionaire (”survey”), & I extended it by contacting old-teachers & classmates (who couldn’t attend) & doing interviews..complete w/transcripts. It was incredibly informative, & probably qualifies as a Master’s Thesis. I even stayed overnight at my Math teacher’s house! (Max Beberman’s protege, who continued the New Math curriculum). Many of the teachers were enthused to hear back from their old students (of course they would!)

Here’s what I sent to my HS class (Class of ‘75), after our 20th HS reunion:

ABCNews interview with Judge Joe Brown
[ Joe Brown is an African-American judge (UCLA grad, son of teachers), who has his TV show “Judge Joe Brown”, a spinoff off of “Judge Judy” & “People’s Court” ]

“Oh I don’t know, a success story now and then, when someone says, you
helped me out. Hey you got me out, I’m glad you did what you did. It’s years & years after being a Cub scout or Boy scout master when one of your kids you had when you had when he was 7 yrs old comes up to you & says:
hey, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. then you say, THAT’S GREAT. Or someone tells you, thank you Judge you locked me up so many times [ TONS of homework by Ms. Leppert..she was the “Grand Dame” of History, a Columbia PhD ], & you stayed on my behind [ badgering ], but now I’ve got a good job, an education, a family & …the peace is SO GOOD. & by the way, could you come talk to this group of people I’ve put together [ my own education program ]..trying to keep them straight. IT FEELS GOOD.”
– Judge Joe Brown

“In retrospect, she [Ms. Leppert, the Grand Dame of History Dept, she was a Columbia PhD & very demanding. TONS of homework ] was good for us”
– Monica xxxxx ‘95 reunion survey (by S. xxxxx)
[ basically, “tough love” was the best prepartion for a tough world ]

During the 20th reunion in ‘95, I was able to have a number of phone
conversations with Ella Leppert. She told me:

“I always thought the students didn’t go ALL THE WAY, only halfway”
[ well, what does a Columbia PhD expect from her students? Nothing but the best effort ]

[ bizarre note: I was the ONLY one that was able to talk to her, she had ex-communicated the HS alumni people! ]

I passed around a Thank You card at Katsina’s (Sunday portion of reunion), so people could sign it. I later put in Ms. Leppert’s mailbox (she wasn’t taking guests, she had Alzheimers & became a hermit). So, I made sure she got some positive feedback:

One of my classmates was influenced by her, & became a famous historian (UNLV History dept head), who wrote a book on “Los Alamos/Manhattan Project” from an Environmental History standpoint. He’s had appearances on History Channel, CBS, etc. Another gal was also influenced, & ended up with a History PhD from Princeton (who married a Princeton Math PhD), & blew off Academia (like me). Someone else was also influenced by her, & he was involved with some United Nations type of work.

What I found, was that certain teachers (Math, History, English, Science) connected with *certain* students, & totally alienated others. It’s almost like students were already PRE-DETERMINED what their career was going to be. Technical types were going to gravitate towards Math & Science courses, artistic types towards Literature, etc. The world-events (for us, the Vietnam war, social upheaval of the 60’s, etc) influenced many to become musicians. A way of doing social-commentary. Many of their fathers were physics & math profs (one of them was David Pines, M. Gell-Man’s best friend @UIUC). Note that Robert Leighton’s sons became musicians/artists (Alan & I know each other)

There are some interesting questions related to Nature & Nurture, in career development..even at HS level. A topic worthy of study in Dept of Education & Sociology. I dabbled in it for my informal project at our 20th reunion, THAT hobby thing has led to some serious issues for my HS (& Caltech, Harvard). All 3 of these institutions have negative effects of bright students crammed together in a hyper-competitive environment. LOTS of suicides, the most recent one a daughter of a well known physicist (Harvard PhD). Just found out another daughter of a physicist killed herself. That Caltech genius-girl (Carver Mead’s famous PhD student) profile in Discovering Women (M. Franklin/Harvard was also profiled), jumped in front of a train in Switzerland. The latter is not public knowledge, one of her Caltech grad school colleagues told me this (his dad is a famous Caltech Nobel Laureate, Biology). That Caltech grad student (Physics, string theory, double math/physics major out of Univ of Chicago) who was caught for environmental terrorism (burning SUVs), is sitting in Federal Jail. Long sentence. Basically, these smart kids are “too smart for their own good” & “going over the edge”. I’m about to file a report to my HS/Caltech/Harvard (& other institutions), that they NEED to teach a course on:

“Discretion is the Better Part of Valor”
[ know when to “apply the whip” & “hold the reins” ]

I find myself in dangerous situations (eclipse-chasing around the world, putting myself at risk). Somehow, I know when to “cool it”. I know when I’m close to the edge, & to back off.

I have TONS more quotes & material on Education, particularly HS level. I will open up my archives soon on my own blog, & share some here.

Thanks for the post, it’s interesting to see that there were other “Tough Love” HS teachers making their impact. Every professional can point to a few teachers, who were influential. In fact, these were probably the teachers you HATED the most while in school: they pushed you to your limits, to *challenge* you.

“In order to Push the Limits, sometimes you have to EXCEED THE LIMITS”
– commentary on Australian Grand Prix/Formula 1 (forgot the year)

[ cars crashing, as the engineers/drivers push their cars to the edge. They call them “Knife Edge” cars, they are so unstable. Many of these Academic “geniuses” are famous for being temperamental/unstable. Whew, have I seen my share! One of the reasons I exited Academia..I rather be around pleasant people, as opposed to hyper-competitive obnoxious types! “Big personalities”, was the term used for the screwup of the HST mirror ]

“If everything is feeling normal, you’re not pushing hard enough”
– Mario Andretti

[ this explains race-car crashes, resulting in injuries & deaths. Also, explains the suicides in Academia ]

“We went right to the edge, looked over to the brink of insanity”
– Ray Manzarek, “The Doors” rock-band
[ referring to Jim Morrison & Doors creative philosophy of pushing-the-limits. “The Doors” was based on Aldous Huxley’s book Doors of Perception, & the quote:

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.”

–William Blake

The above quote kinda fits nicely to CV. Has String Theory become more speculation/perception, rather than hard Science? ]

The Doors is the most “intellectual” rock group, they were all UCLA grads who met during coursework (Yoga class, film school).

Spyder, I did indeed have the opportunity a couple years ago to thank my high school teachers and let them know what they produced (for better or worse!). I was back at the school for an award ceremony, talked to the teachers that were still there, and the school contacted on my behalf the ones that had retired. It was great fun to see them!

Knowing what happens to students later in life, is vital to good teaching. Yet we wish to spend literally billions of dollars reducing that to one set of test scores for one academic year and calling that achievement accountability. I learned that lesson way back in the early 80s when i was traipsing about in the backcountry of the Sierra’s. A small group of hikers came by in the opposite direction. As the third or fourth backpack passes by, i hear this voice repeat a certain mythic statement. I laugh out loud, knowing that it was something i often said to my students in class. It turns out that the person who said it was in my freshman, native american, survey course at CSUH. He was in Law school and had never forgotten the class. It because apparent to me, especially when i moved on to teaching teachers, that keeping in touch with students as they matriculate through our education systems, affords the opportunities to review and refine teaching and connecting. It makes a difference.

I would love to hear that JoAnne made the effort to at least let Mrs. H know that she made a difference before she passed on. As Spatulated recommends, please go and connect with at least one of the teachers who you remember connected with you and helped you in some way be whom you are today. And Spatulated, yes they will remember you.