Teachers... The Best and The Worst Part 1

Teachers... The Best and The Worst

Elementary School Edition

When you have Aspergers, a teacher can make you or break you. Again, I wasn't diagnosed until I was 22, so my teachers never knew exactly how to deal with me, but there were a few who made the grade!

Upon entering the second grade, I was scared. I had been assigned to the only male teacher in my school and he had just come from teaching one of the upper grade levels (I believe it was fifth grade). He ended up being one of the best teachers I ever had. I recently got back in touch with him through facebook and explained the way my life turned out and how he helped me more than most in getting to where I am today. 

I was always bored in school. My grandmother taught us how to do complex mathematics in our heads during car rides and I'd been reading since I was 4. I had already gone into kindergarten early, after testing to get in, and although my grandmother had to volunteer in the library in order for me to feel comfortable at school (unexpressible at the time but somehow my family figured it out), I was not being challenged. If you have Aspergers, you may know what I mean. It seemed to me like school was a waste of time. I didn't have friends and I already knew what they were trying to teach me. 

I was the kid that got on the teacher's nerves. I was the one who interrupted the math lesson on early multiplication tables to ask if I could demonstrate a more complex problem. I was the one who corrected the teacher's grammar and used vocabulary that my classmates didn't understand. I never meant to be a problematic child and I wish I could apologize to the teachers and classmates who will never understand that I was coming from a good place. So good of a place in fact, that in kindergarten, I was sent to the principal's office for refusing to leave the classroom until EVERYONE left the room. My teacher had asked me to be the last person in line and to shut the door and the lights when we left, and a boy was refusing to go in front of me. Again, rigidity of thinking, but I was just doing what I was told. Today we laugh about it, but at the time, it certainly wasn't funny. 

A few weeks into the school year, that second grade teacher that I had been so leery of had realized that I was bored out of my mind. He pulled aside a few of us and gave us special work to do while the rest of the class was learning what we already knew. I was challenged in school that year but even better than that, I was empowered. Someone noticed me and my plight and decided to do something about it. He didn't know what made me different at the time, but he ended up doing the best thing he could have done.

 The third grade brought a different kind of amazing teacher. My third grade teacher was an older woman, retiring at the end of the year, and she was creative and artistic. On the first day of school, she told us that we would put on two plays during the school year. I was so excited that I immediately took to the library, gathered several anthologies of plays, and read every single one, bookmarking those that I felt we could do in the classroom. Seeing my initiative, my teacher chose one of the plays that I had picked, The Broken Broomstick, and I was cast in the lead role. Again, without knowing it at the time, she did something for me that changed my life. She provided me with an outlet for my imagination while SOCIALIZING! I think of her fondly and often... and I still have my script, complete with her notes, sitting on my bookshelf. 

The fifth grade brought two amazing teachers. One was an art teacher who I later learned was related to me. She took me under her wing and treated me in such a special way that I will be forever grateful. I am certainly more of an artist with my words than with my hands, but at graduation, I received an art award for all of my time (before school and after) working on my projects to make them perfect and helping keep the art room neat and tidy. 

...But as I said, I was spoiled that year. There was a second teacher. A teacher I had been waiting to have since kindergarten: Mrs. Jane Shapiro. Mrs. Shapiro cared more for her students than anyone I'd ever met in my entire life. You are her student for life. She and I are still in touch. She was the teacher in charge of the morning announcements. At our school, each 5th grader had the option to read the morning announcements for a week with a partner. I was her special helper. I would come in and take her lunch to the teacher's lounge in the morning then I would go over the day's announcements. I would take each pair to the office and show them how to do the job and I was the replacement if someone didn't show up or if someone had difficulties pronouncing something. Again, this simple act allowed me to come out of my shell and forced me to interact with others. Had that been all she had done, it would have been sufficient... but it was not. 

Mrs. Shapiro was known for her Hershey's Kisses. If you were caught doing something good, you got a kiss. If you went above and beyond, you got a kiss. I thought I was done getting kisses on graduation day... BOY WAS I WRONG! After my first semester in middle school, I received a mysterious envelope in the mail. Upon opening it, I saw a card that said "a kiss for a star student". Inside was a newspaper clipping with the honor roll on it and my name name highlighted. These cards continued to arrive through my college graduation (even when she had a heart attack and wasn't well). I could go on about her forever but I think you get the idea.  

I was lucky not to have any bad teachers during elementary school. I certainly didn't get along with my gym teacher, but he wasn't a bad man. I loved my music instructor and practiced my flute so much I thought my lips would fall off. As these were all good memories, I am happy to recognize those that were mentioned.

A special thanks to Mr. Dan Deneen, Ms. Dorothy Welch, Ms. Cynthia Cronan, and Mrs. Jane Shapiro for being such amazing influences on my life.

"Because I knew you, I have been changed for good."