Favorite Teacher

I'd like to start with a discussion about favorite teachers. That's right. We all have one. She or he may no longer walk the earth but I can guarantee that this person will remain in our memories for the rest of our lives. Mine was Mrs. Vaughn. I'm not even sure what her first name was because we just called her Mrs. Vaughn when I was in the first grade. Yep. She was my first grade teacher. The elementary school moved me from Mrs. Conally's class to Mrs. Vaughn's at the request of my mother because I was deathly afraid of Mrs. Conally, the fast talking New Yorker who had all the smartest kids in her class, or so I thought. I had just lost my father in 1960 when he died of a sudden heart attack. He was only in his forties and I was age six.

I was tongued-tied and couldn't learn to read. In those days we had Dick and Jane, and their dog Spot. Those were the basal readers written by William S. Gray and Zerna Sharp, and published by Scott Foresman. All I really needed was to relax a little bit, and Mrs. Vaughn was all about helping me there. Why? How? Both of those questions can be answered with one word: love. She loved me and I could feel it sure as a picnic under a tree on a spring day. The tree had a tree swing and the picnic had egg salad sandwiches on white bread and soft peaches. My best friend Susan enjoyed the picnic with me and... Well, you get the point. A teacher's love is unmistakable and transforming.

Within a few months I was one of Mrs. Vaughn's top reading students. I don't remember how well I did in first grade math, but I know I mastered reading and it felt like someone learning to ice skate who never knew they could muster the necessary balance before. It was awesome and freeing.

I remember that when the magic of love happened, something else happened almost simultaneously. I began to see Dick and Jane as a family and in my imagination I was suddenly able to see more than just the words on a page; I was able to see a family in action and to predict what would happen next in many cases. As my eyes flew across the page, I was already seeing the Dick and Jane movie in my head. I imagined every scene seconds before my eyes confirmed the details through the syllables I was reading. In other words, I got the whole picture and I was curious about what would happen next, so it wasn't simply this boring exercise of memorizing, "Hel-lo, Jane said."

Please share some of your memories of favorite teachers with me.