How about starting a thread about our least favorite teachers. I will bet that many of us pick the same ones. I will start.
Mr. Wells - Chemistry
I really disliked the way he stood at the end of the row and went through the homework and questioned you as to why you did not do the homework. It became a game with me to think up excuses that he would accept.
Ms. Bowyer - government/economics
She and I started off on the wrong foot on the first day when she asked if my scholarship would be equal to a smart sister who had her 6 years prior. It went down hill from there.
Mr. Knoche - math
The most frustrating math teacher I ever had. He would never answer a question straight. He always ask you a question rather than answer your question.
Mr. Cromer, art (hope he reads this). He gave us a large assignment, which was basically . . . do whatever. No instructions at all. So I did a small sculpture, gluing sticks of balsa wood together on poster board. On the day it was due, we stood in line with our pieces, he briefly glancing at them while flirting with some senior girls. When I showed him mine, he said, 'Good. Now finish it.' Wha . . . ? In my naïveté, I assumed that if I were a REAL artist, I would've known what to do. So concluded I wasn't.
Nice you-all, I think I would like to add a little Poem with a little Satire to our Least favorite Teachers:
God made the world in six days flat,
on the seventh he said, “I will rest.”
So, he let the thing into orbit swing
to give it a dry run test.
A billion years went by,
then he took a look at his whirling blob.
His spirits fell as he shrugged.
Oh well it was only a six day job.
I can't really remember any. To be honest, I can only name a small hand full of my teachers. I remember hating Biology but who the teacher was has long been erased from my conscientiousness. (thank goodness for spell check) At first I kind of didn't like Mr. Powell in Sophomore English, but he kinda grew on me 'till I ended up liking him.
I can't really remember any. To be honest, I can only name a small hand full of my teachers. I remember hating Biology but who the teacher was has long been erased from my conscientiousness. (thank goodness for spell check) At first I kind of didn't like Mr. Powell in Sophomore English, but he kinda grew on me 'till I ended up liking him.
So much for spell check. LOL...that should be consciousness.
Note to self: Proof read before posting, dummy.
I didn't have Ms Bowyer but I have to agree with Elson on Mr Wells & Mr Knoche.
Mr Wells--Besides the fact that I hated Chemistry, I had Mr Wells' class last period & he HATED letting athletes out of class early for games. Coaches usually had to send someone to get us out of class.
Mr Knoche--He was just STRANGE. My wife Linda and her sisters used to babysit his kids & when it was time to pay them he would break out his trusty slide rule(anybody remember those?) to figure out to the penny what he owed them.
Was Mr. Knoche the math teacher shaped like a light bulb? He drove me nuts. Thank goodness for Sandy Pizzo sitting behind me in that class. He kept me entertained and supplied sticks of gum.
Mr Powell was a little tough for English, but he did warm up after a bit.
I was the teacher's assistant for one of the chemistry teachers and he boiled over the agar (the medium for the petree dishes) and it got all over my white letter sweater and his remark was, 'Sorry' It never came out.
i have to confess. I fell off the humble wagon when my mom sent me a newspaper clipping in the late 1980s about some teaching award that Mr. Wells has won for innovative teaching.
I pulled out a piece of Cornell University letterhead and wrote a snarky letter about him perfecting that 'new innovative teaching' on students when I took Chemistry. I never received a reply. Somehow, i am a student that was always remembered by teachers years later. Was it the odd name?
I had Mr. Wells for chemitry. Cindy Pike and took it during summer school. I do not remember it being very innovative. I just remember forgetting to take the stopper out of the test tube before heating it...well you know what happened. Mr. Wells certainly jumped into action then.
The Teacher was real thin with wavey blond hair. I guess I could look him up. It was sooooooo boring. We all passed notes and whispered to each other to dump our books of our desktops at the same time, and we did. This was funny to us anyway.
Well, I have to agree about Ms Bowyer, and then, I had some new Algebra teacher (can't remember his name because he was gone after that) who was really kind of a tyrant. He said that you 'either have the mind for Algebra, etc. or you don't and if you don't, you may as well accept it and get out of the class'. I think I've had a block against it ever since. He didn't have the time or patience to help anyone. I got a low grade and decided I must not have the mind for it, transferred out and then got August Knoche. I think you were in my class, Gail. I don't think I had the mind for that class either. Ha! Don't think I ever saw him smile except in his staff picture.
Coach Powell hands down!!! He was so mean to me. No kidding. He downgraded me on a book report for my appearance. When I asked him what was wrong with my appearance, he said, 'I don't like your hair'. I did get even though by having Bob Jacques change my grade to and 'A'. He was Powell's aide. Ha ha Coach Powell!
hi paulette, I rember a classic coach powell incidente. at a parent, teacher night, powell had wrighten on the black board, and misspelled stuff and my professor dad marked 'sp.' over the errors !! to funny. love cindy
Mr. Knocke was unusual, to be sure, but what about Bill Graham? He taught speech and debate, Freshman English, managed the stage in the auditorium, directed the school plays from time to time, was the yearbook advisor and was in charge of the morning announcements. He was convinced of his own specialness, and he walked funny. What about him?
Mr. Wells
Well! what can I say, Yes he was an Ass, but he was actually
a great teacher. Because of him I got an A at ASU in Chem!
He did embarrass the hell out of me once or twice.
My nomination goes to a young 1st year history teacher. Miss Wallentinson taught World History 68/69. She could NOT control a classroom, at least not the class I took. I lasted nine weeks and begged Mrs. Johnson to let me switch to study hall. We had barely covered one chapter in that time. It was murderously boring. I don't know how many yrs. more she taught there or if she got any better. At least I could sleep in study hall ( Prior)
I'm sorry, but I have to defend Miss (I'm sure it was 'Miss') Bowyer. She had us do this project where we picked a stock that was sold on the stock exchange and follow it for a month, I think. I made a fortune (imaginary), and have never come close to that much success in the market since.
One day, I went up to tell her that I would have to miss a day of class, and I asked if I would 'miss anything special.' She looked stricken and said she tried to make every day special. I went to the girls' bathroom and cried.
I felt so bad about that that I wrote to her a couple of times after high school. The first was after I went to Japan in the summer of '69. I was with a group of American students in Tokyo, and we ran across some other Caucasian faces so went over to say hi. They were Europeans and asked us to guess what country they were from. They started giving us hints, and I thought we looked like the Ugly Americans because we didn't know anything. But when one of the guys said, 'You heard about our country in 1956' I remembered it from some history we had studied with Miss Bowyer. It would have been terrible to act like we didn't know or care that his country had been smashed by Soviet tanks. So I wrote to thank her for those bits of knowledge that we always thought were useless until we needed them.
I wrote her again a couple of years later when I was getting married, and she sent some lovely hand-crocheted pillow covers.
So, please, some respect for Miss Bowyer. Imagine if your life just consisted of teaching US.
But you're right, Elson. I think the first thing she said to me, too, was to ask if I would be as smart as my older sisters. Really ticked me off because I was pretty sure I was smarter than my sisters, thank you very much. That kind of comment, though, may have lit a fire under me. No way were my sisters going to show me up. Again, I credit Miss Bowyer for knowing what she was doing, in her way.
Amazing to me that you needed inspiration - that's how naturally mentally gifted you were!
I remember being in Miss Ormsby's Jr. Accel. English class with you and trying my hardest at every assignment, only to have Miss Ormsby hold up your work as the measure of perfection. It made me realize I had a long way to go.
So Miss Bowyer may have been inspiration for you, but YOU were my inspiration.
After your defense of Miss Bowyer, I must respond. It was definitely MISS Bowyer! If you recall, in 1969 the term Ms. was just starting to appear on the western horizon from California. I tried it out on her a few times. She always got a bit angry and corrected me that it was MISS Bowyer. On day I was retained after class and she reamed me a new-one for the “lack of respect” I showed to her by the use of the term Ms. I had to try the term out one more time and that resulted in a threat of being thrown out of class. Well, I needed the class to graduate so I moved on to other flash points. She must have been in her late 50s when we had her as a teacher. Oh, about our current age! I wonder how she dealt with the changes in women’s rights and opportunities later in her life? Did she support her sisters with their new role models, opportunities and rights? Or did she turn into a bitter old prune?
Were you in my section? Then there was the Kent State/national guard issue/debate where no one would take the side of the guardsmen. I took up the challenge and argued that the national guard was justified to shoot the demonstrators. Oh my, what a debate. Elson against the class and Ms. Bowyer. I think everybody in the class believed that I really believed my side of the debate.
You also have to know that your achievements were used in my house to try to inspire me to do more than coast along. My only goal was to keep above a 3.0 so I could keep my driver license. My response to all of the pressure from my mom was “I am not planning to go to college. I think I will join the Marines and go off and die in a distant land”. Then the stuff would hit the fan and the topic would be off the table for a few weeks.
BTW, Bill R. joined the marines in my place so I did not have to. Thanks for the effort Bill.
I was sure a pain in the a$$ during those years. Perhaps, nothing has changed.
Least favorite teacher would have to be Mr. (Senor) Renke, Reinker, or something like that. Anyone have him for Spanish? I don't think anyone ever listened to him or paid any attention. He was tenured sp? at Tempe and couldn't be run off, though he needed to be. Seenor Smeeth was a little better at teaching Spanish. I now can empathize with those that teach subjects that aren't required!
I can't recall my least favorite, but I can recall my favorite-Merilee DeVinny. I don't remember much about Sophomore English, but my attendance was 100%. Absolutely the shortest skirts I ever saw. There wasn't a kid in that class ( guys anyway ) that didn't anticipate her moving from behind her desk to sitting on top of her desk. NOW THAT WAS ENGLISH !
Ned;
Nice to see your name. I hope all is well with you. I still treasure all the times we had. I remember your dad's T-Bird that he loved, and how Mary was always so nice to me. Hawaii in 1970-1971 was the best. I find it interesting that Stan is giving the invocation, since the last time I saw him was when we went to Maui for the week-end and smoked his Maui Waui. I'm still 'stuck' in the islands on Maui. I get back to the valley now and then. Are you still in Payson ? I miss our times together.
During Miss Bowyer's econ. class, had anyone told me I'd end up teaching econ. in college years later I'd have busted a gut with laughter. Earned a gentleman's 'C' and barely made that. As with Algebra-Trig in those days, just not ready at the time. Later had great econ. prof's at ASU, who got me on the right path. Course, no one today should admit to being an economist....
After your defense of Miss Bowyer, I must respond.  It was definitely MISS Bowyer!  If you recall, in 1969 the term Ms. was just starting to appear on the western horizon from California.  I tried it out on her a few times.  She always got a bit angry and corrected me that it was MISS Bowyer.  On day I was retained after class and she reamed me a new-one for the “lack of respect” I showed to her by the use of the term Ms.  I had to try the term out one more time and that resulted in a threat of being thrown out of class.  Well, I needed the class to graduate so I moved on to other flash points.  She must have been in her late 50s when we had her as a teacher.  Oh, about our current age!  I wonder how she dealt with the changes in women’s rights and opportunities later in her life?  Did she support her sisters with their new role models, opportunities and rights?  Or did she turn into a bitter old prune?
Were you in my section? Â Then there was the Kent State/national guard issue/debate where no one would take the side of the guardsmen. Â I took up the challenge and argued that the national guard was justified to shoot the demonstrators. Â Oh my, what a debate. Â Elson against the class and Ms. Bowyer. Â I think everybody in the class believed that I really believed my side of the debate.
You also have to know that your achievements were used in my house to try to inspire me to do more than coast along.  My only goal was to keep above a 3.0 so I could keep my driver license.  My response to all of the pressure from my mom was “I am not planning to go to college.  I think I will join the Marines and go off and die in a distant land”.  Then the stuff would hit the fan and the topic would be off the table for a few weeks.
BTW, Bill R. joined the marines in my place so I did not have to. Â Thanks for the effort Bill.
I was sure a pain in the a$$ during those years. Â Perhaps, nothing has changed.
Cheers  Elson
You are very welcome Elson. I did have a certain amount of fun in the USMC. It wasn't all pain and suffering. Sure hope you make it to the party!!
Bill and Elson, I was in Miss Bowyer's class with you and I remember the famous debate. I don't remember which side I was on, but it was a great debate. I wonder what the debate would be about today -- healthcare reform maybe? Well, all this sure brings back a lot of memories.
Jean, where are you? I have lost track of you. I have many great memories of us going to school together -- riding the bus and the neighborhood drama. If you get a chance, will you email me and let me know what's going on in your life?
Will you be at the reunion?
