<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A while ago I dedicated this space to one of the most inspirational teachers I had back in the day, the late Don Aronson (R.I.P.).\u00a0 Digging back in the old memory files dusted off a lot of other memories that made me think, \u201cOkay, what else did you pick up along the way and who did you acquire those pieces of knowledge (and skills) from?\u00a0 This will be more or less in chronological order beginning with my first year in school circa 1958-59 and will obviously be more of a highlight reel than a comprehensive compendium of everything (I think) I learned along the way.\u00a0 The names won\u2019t resonate with anyone who wasn\u2019t in my educational sphere back then, but I am sure many of us shared similar learning experiences, just at different times and in different places.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I really can not put a name or even a face on my Kindergarten teacher because we had a bunch.\u00a0 Whether it was a maternity leave or some other circumstance, we had a rotating cast of teachers for our morning half day sessions.\u00a0 I do remember giving my mother a jaunty wave the first (and only) day she walked me the block up Norway Street to Whitman Elementary.\u00a0 I also remember naps taken on floor mats, a pushy kid who wouldn\u2019t let anyone but \u2018his friends\u2019 use the sandbox in the toy room, and my first public display of vomiting (at least it was in the cloakroom).\u00a0 As far as what we learned, we didn\u2019t really get into the A B Cs of it all (as they do now in K) until first grade.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mrs. Burke always drove a black Ford sedan and parked it in the same spot on Norway Avenue just west of the school.\u00a0 She was a very nice older woman who recognized that I was one of the younger kids.\u00a0 Having a late September birthday meant I started Kindergarten when I was four, going on five.\u00a0 Years later, my dad said she had called and talked to them about some concerns she had about my behavior.\u00a0 It took one \u2018discussion\u2019 at the dinner table to let me know what was expected of me, younger student or not.\u00a0 A follow up phone call confirmed I had made the necessary corrections.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We had our own restroom in the back corner of the room and I remember her saving me some embarrassment one day.\u00a0 I had used the facilities and could not for the life of me get my pants zipped up.\u00a0 She knocked on the door and asked quietly if I needed help.\u00a0 Problem solved and as far as I could tell, no one else in class had even noticed my extended absence in the BR.\u00a0 She kept me after school one day (the first of my two public school detentions) to finish an assignment and that lesson stuck.\u00a0 My brother particularly enjoyed knocking on the window and laughing at me still being in my seat when he walked by heading home from JH.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I liked Mrs. Burke but I really liked my second grade teacher but for some reason, I am having\u00a0 a hard time with her name.\u00a0 I believe it was Mrs. Knauss but do not quote me on the spelling.\u00a0 My second year teaching in Ontonagon, I had an appointment with my long time dentist in Marquette. \u00a0 His assistant that day looked really familiar until it hit me who she was.\u00a0 I asked if she used to teach at Whitman and when I told her my name, she said, \u201cOh, Kenny, I remember you.\u201d\u00a0 I did not get around to asking when she got out of the teaching game (obviously she had) but she seemed rather tickled that I had become a teacher myself.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whitman had enough students that there were two classes for most grades.\u00a0 We became more aware of this as third grade approached.\u00a0 Mind you, I do not recall who the other teachers in some of the grades were but kids started a whisper campaign early on about Mrs. Mileski:\u00a0 \u201cShe is old.\u00a0 I hope I don\u2019t get put in her class\u201d (and so on).\u00a0 I asked my dad about the hub-bub and he simply said, \u201cI work with her son Mike at the State Police post.\u00a0 She is a nice lady.\u201d\u00a0 When the fall started and I found myself in her class, it was interesting because her grandson was in my grade and he was also in her class.\u00a0 Yes, she was obviously older than the rest of the staff and she was a strict, no nonsense educator, but I didn\u2019t have any problem with her.\u00a0 I did wonder what it was like for young Mike to have his grandmother for his teacher.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whitman was beginning to get overcrowded so fourth grade was interesting.\u00a0 By my fifth grade year, they needed to add a second class for one grade but did not have enough classrooms.\u00a0 The library shelves were moved into the main hallway that year and the library itself was turned into a classroom.\u00a0 To ease the crowding during my fourth grade year (before they moved the library), they tried something innovative.\u00a0 All the fourth graders who lived within walking distance of Whitman had a half day of school that ran from 7:00 am to 11:30 am.\u00a0 We had a similar half day arrangement in Kindergarten.\u00a0 When the Kindergarten kids from farther out were bussed to school for the afternoon section, the bus riding fourth graders were brought in to have class from 12:00 noon until 4:30 pm.\u00a0 An extra bus run was added to get them home after their day ended.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The teacher, Mrs Olson, warned us on the first day that our shortened day meant we would be getting homework.\u00a0 The first couple of weeks did indeed include taking home work each day (perhaps she was just trying to get us into the groove) so I made it a habit to eat my lunch at home and then get right on it.\u00a0 In all honesty, most of us found if we kicked into high gear at school, we rarely had to bring work home.\u00a0 It was kind of interesting because we already owned our second Ski Doo and the NMU campus had not yet spread all the way to our house yet.\u00a0 I remember many a winter day snowmobiling that 40 acres of rolling field (former farm land) as soon as I was done shoveling the driveway.\u00a0 Occasionally, I would get close enough to the school to see the other kids out at recess and think, \u201cBoy, I wish every year was like this!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My other deeply embedded memory of fourth grade was taking a field trip to the Bunny Bread bakery that was located on Washington Street at the south end of Lincoln Avenue.\u00a0 We were promised a donut at the end of our tour (inducement to behave?) but I never got to enjoy mine.<\/span><\/p>\n It turns out I was seated on the bus with Mrs. Olson\u2019s daughter.\u00a0 In the eight blocks between the school and the bakery, she got a funny look on her face and upchucked her entire breakfast on my lap.\u00a0 Mrs. Olson was a strict teacher, but at that moment, she had the same look of horror any parent would have on their face after seeing their child vomit on a bystander.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0She quickly dug up enough stuff to clean me up while Margaret sat there rather oblivious to what had happened (no doubt because she felt worse than she looked).\u00a0 Mrs. O asked if I would rather stay on the bus during the tour and I declined.\u00a0 The other student\u2019s body language during the tour said, \u201cYes, you smell like vomit\u201d but in retrospect, staying on the bus would have meant being in a confined space that smelled like vomit.\u00a0 By the end, the donut had lost its appeal.\u00a0 Fortunately, we got back to school just in time to be dismissed so I walked the block home to get changed.\u00a0 Maybe I imagined it, but Mrs Olson didn\u2019t seem so strict for the rest of the year.\u00a0 I reminded Margaret of this episode at either our ten or twenty year class reunion and she said she didn\u2019t recall it at all.\u00a0 I did, but I can see that with her being the ill one, who would want to remember that?<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0On to fifth grade and back to a normal, full day schedule.\u00a0 Mrs. Zeeman was another younger teacher and she no doubt did a fine job.\u00a0 There are really only two things that stand out in my memories from that year.\u00a0 On the negative side, we were standing in a line by her desk to have her check an assignment.\u00a0 I made the unfortunate error of chuckling when she had a humdinger of a sneeze.\u00a0 She fixed a steely eyed gaze on me and said something along the lines of, \u201cWhat is it you find so funny about someone sneezing?\u201d\u00a0 On a more positive note, fifth grade was my first year being released from class for drum lessons every other week.\u00a0 We practiced our rudiments with the high school band director, Mr. Paterson, on a formica table top in the nurse\u2019s room and not on a real drum.\u00a0 Thus began my \u2018drum crazy period\u2019 (which actually has never really gone away) where I began pouring over Ludwig drum catalogs and hinting to my parents that I might need to purchase not one drum, but an entire kit sometime in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The only year I obsessed a bit about who my teacher would be was between fifth and sixth grade.\u00a0 Word got out that my old third grade teacher, Mrs. Mileski, would have one section and Don Aronson would teach the other.\u00a0 I have already chronicled why I held out hope that I would be assigned to Mr A\u2019s class (<\/span>FTV:\u00a0 Mr. Don Aronson et al 9-25-24<\/span><\/i>) and a lot of that came from hearing my sister talk about him.\u00a0 Unbeknownst to us, they had decided to give us a mini-taste of \u2018changing classes\u2019 before we got to seventh grade by swapping classes one period a day.\u00a0 Mrs. M taught Social Studies and Mr. A was the designated Math teacher for the year.\u00a0 The only rub I had with Mrs. M came when she asked the class, \u201cWhat should I do with little Mr. Drummer Boy?\u201d\u00a0 Drummers usually have a lifelong habit of \u2018drumming\u2019 on any surface they lay hands on and apparent.y I was no exception.\u00a0 Another lesson learned about when tapping out rhythms is appropriate and when it is not.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The best part of being in Mr. Aronson\u2019s class was occupying the last seat in the back of the middle row of desks.\u00a0 Just behind my desk was a door with a half pane of frosted glass that led into the principal\u2019s office.\u00a0 If Mr. Barber needed a note to be delivered to the staff or the secretary needed help hauling something, I would feel a tap on my shoulder.\u00a0 No matter what we were doing in class, I was permanently excused to be the office \u2018gopher\u2019 (as in \u2018go for this, go for that\u2019) – as long as I caught up with my missed work when I was so engaged.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Drum lessons continued throughout sixth grade but we got to go up a notch on the practice ladder.\u00a0 First, we had a couple of sessions when Mr. Patterson would gather all of the sixth grade band kids together to try (yes, try) and hash through an actual song.\u00a0 Near the end of the year,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n we were put on a bus and taken to Graveraet Jr High where we joined all the other seventh graders to be.\u00a0 This was our first introduction to the Jr High band instructor, Mr. Smeberg, and it gave him an idea what his new band students would be like come fall.\u00a0 Having spent the last seven years in a one level school a block from my house, traveling to the three story former high school a couple of miles away would prove to be an interesting two years.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0My last year at Whitman (1964-65) was also my brother\u2019s senior year at the newly built Marquette Senior High on Fair Avenue. \u00a0 Graveraet was the high school for his first three years and by the time I got there, it had only been the Jr. High for two years.\u00a0 By then, the old Howard School where Ron had gone for Jr High had been torn down to make way for a high rise apartment building.\u00a0 The one thing I missed by not going to Howard was a chance to slide down the long tubes that served as the fire escape system.\u00a0 Ron said it was fun unless some joker ahead of you closed the doors at the bottom and held them shut.\u00a0 Obviously, this was frowned upon, but to the misfortune of those coming down the tube after the doors were closed, it did happen.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Though Principal Ralph Barber wasn\u2019t one of my teachers, he still played a big role in our education at Whitman.\u00a0 Impeccably dressed in a suit and tie, he was a kindly, white haired gentleman who never raised his voice.\u00a0 He liked to be involved with the school programs (especially the Christmas pageant and other musical productions) and as far as I could tell, he was always at the school.\u00a0 The one time I remember seeing him actually be annoyed happened when I was in the boy\u2019s bathroom.\u00a0 A younger student came in after me and for some reason climbed up on top of the urinals and was walking back and forth to the stalls when Mr. Barber came in.\u00a0 His furrowed brow told me he was not happy with what he saw.\u00a0 He pointed at me and simply said, \u201cGo back to class.\u201d\u00a0 I complied but I took my time, curious what he would do with the kid he caught using the bathroom like playground equipment.\u00a0 No yelling or fireworks ensued.\u00a0 The last I saw of them, the perpetrator was hustling toward the office with Mr. Barber in slow pursuit.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The change to Jr. High in the fall of 1965 meant big changes from what we were used to.\u00a0 More teachers, hourly class changes, and eating lunch in the school cafeteria (a first for me who was used to trotting home for lunch every day at Whitman).\u00a0 There are more stories that I can cover in this space but I can at least pay tribute to them by name and subject.\u00a0 Seventh grade core subjects were taught by Mr. Summers (Social Studies & English), Mr. Straton (Science), Mrs. Johnson (Math).\u00a0 We also had gym with Mr. Soli, band with Mr. Smeberg, drafting and metal shop with Mr. Marana, woodshop with Mr. Berg and a semester each of art (Mr. Meyers) and vocal music (with a different Mrs. Johnson).\u00a0 The only one of this list that did not make much of an impression on me was the math teacher as it was just business as usual – practice sheets, quizzes, and tests – nothing that exactly stirred up an groundsell of love in me for math.\u00a0 I did fine, but she managed to turn math into a chore.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Eighth grade was similarly structured with gym and industrial arts but graphic arts (with the same teachers).\u00a0 Vocal music was replaced with a study hall (the only one I had between grades 7 and 12).\u00a0 This SH met in the dimly lit Kauffman Auditorium and it took a lot of effort to not simply slump back in the comfy seats and snooze.\u00a0 Mr. Marcihol covered science and Mr. Tiziani was the math teacher (allowing me to avoid the other guy who had a nasty reputation). \u00a0 Mr. Gil introduced us to the (now) long forgotten skill of diagramming sentences in english.\u00a0 God bless him because he also introduced us to Thor Heyerdahl and <\/span>Kon Tiki<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 It is a good thing because I was always interested in history (and have read all of Hyerdahl\u2019s work over the years).\u00a0 The history teacher that year piqued even less interest in me than the seventh grade math teacher.\u00a0 How do I know this for sure?\u00a0 I always liked history but she made it so dry that I can not even remember her name.\u00a0 I can still clearly see her face in my mind, but come to think of it, she may have been just an upper torso. She never got away from her desk that I can recall – perhaps spending my time drawing flying superheroes in my spiral binder of notes kept me from noticing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With that, I again say \u2018thank you\u2019 for all the experiences my public school teachers doled out to me between 1958 and 1967.\u00a0 Maybe I will revisit high school one of these days, but not today!<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Favorite teachers means playing my favorite song about teachers – naturally!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A while ago I dedicated this space to one of the most inspirational teachers I had back in the day, the late Don Aronson (R.I.P.).\u00a0 Digging back in the old memory files dusted off a lot of other memories that made me think, \u201cOkay, what else did you pick up along the way and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-uncategorized","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3355"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3364,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355\/revisions\/3364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}