聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 The other day I received a text message from a high school friend, it read along the lines of, 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry to be the bearer of bad news鈥︹�� and she proceeded to tell me that one of our teachers had passed away that day. He hadn鈥檛 gone in that morning for school and one of his teacher friends went to check on him, finding him.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Mr. Bob Smith was in fact one of my favourite teachers in school. He always had a ton of energy and taught history like nobody else 鈥� we played Jeopardy one day in class to prepare for an exam and I can still remember sitting there buzzing in with the answer in the form of a question 鈥� 鈥淲ho is Gavrillo Princip?鈥� After the statement read, 鈥淭his man assassinated Archduke Ferdinand to start World War I.鈥� I then got the bonus statement 鈥淗e was associated with this radical group鈥︹�� 鈥淲hat was the Black Hand?鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Learning became fun, and I crushed exams in his class because I鈥檇 remember back to these fun reviews we did in class.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Mr. Smith was a huge fan of the Boston Red Sox and every once and awhile on would go 鈥淪weet Caroline,鈥� which we all learned 鈥淏ah, Bah, Bahhh鈥� is improvised after Neil Diamond sings out 鈥淪weet Caroline鈥︹�� then as Diamond sang 鈥淕ood times never seemed so good,鈥� we 鈥� in unison 鈥� sing 鈥淪o good, so good, so good.鈥� We were told the Red Sox always sing it at the end of the 8th inning in Fenway Park. It鈥檚 a kind of good luck charm for the Red Sox. Obviously as I write this, I鈥檓 listening to 鈥淪weet Caroline鈥� and remembering singing it on occasion at the end of class when Mr. Smith would play the song on his computer.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 In grade 12, my French class wanted nothing more than a trip to France. Although our French teacher wasn鈥檛 up for that organizational task and said more than five people had to go鈥� we thought to ourselves, who could we convince to take us on a trip to France? It was Mr. Smith. We switched the focus from us going to France to practice our French and said that Europe is about history and that the senior grades would all be interested in seeing that history up close.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Mr. Smith promised to look into it鈥� and he discovered it was the 90th anniversary for Vimy Ridge that spring 鈥� he wanted to go鈥� and his classes wanted to go鈥� so, he put it in motion and we toured England and France. Since then he had been taking students on trips over the years to various European countries, China, and more.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 When our volleyball team made Provincials for the first time in 20 years, there was only one man that could do us justice in introducing us at a school pep rally. He could have been an announcer for the NHL or something in another life.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 He managed to make learning fun and because of him 鈥� although I attempted to pursue a math degree in university 鈥� I ended up switching to history. I remembered how much I enjoyed learning from him and if I was going to be a teacher, then I wanted to be a teacher like Mr. Smith. I ended up changing my mind on the teaching pursuit in the end as well, but his efforts in the classroom went a long ways in life in general.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Teachers do shape youth and a good teacher will have a lasting impact. An encouragement here, a few kind words there, a high-five after you鈥檝e won a tournament on the weekend there; they are little things, but spread over the time you have them in school, it shapes you.
