Penny For Your Thoughts: 48 Years

I have been thinking a lot about teachers lately, friends that are currently teaching and my past teachers who helped me become who I am. It has not been easy for teachers at any level the past two years. They are working hard to help our children learn, while navigating uncharted waters in a sometimes archaic system that holds them back. At the same time, they are trying not to get sick! North Carolina falls in the bottom half for average teacher pay in the US, so we know these good folks are not in it for the money. They teach because they are passionate about educating the next generation, they teach to make a difference, they teach because they know how important it is to have an educated society, and they teach because they have always dreamed about becoming a teacher. 

I asked Facebook and Twitter followers if they remember their first grade teacher. 100% of those who replied did. Some thought they were the best, some not so much. Words like “terror”, “typical”, and “quintessential” were left as comments. I also asked if they remembered their high school history teacher. Why? Well, he was my favorite teacher of all time which led to my last question, who was your favorite teacher and why? Here are some of the replies;

Mr. Anderson-high school English, because he was funny, supportive, interesting, caring, and the best kind of nerdy. I’d love to thank him today just for believing in me. –  Kathy Kauffman

Favorite teacher ever was Miss Lacy in 4th grade. She started a nature club and set the whole course of the rest of my life! –  Kym Hunter

My favorite teacher was my high school Senior History teacher, Mr. Sallee. I would thank him for challenging us intellectually and requiring us to read and report on a significant number of really difficult books. He pretty much inspired me to consider college, graduate study and ultimately a career in higher education.-  Jim Clark

Pat Plunkett – high school English. She pushed me in high school, sent me off to her alma mater, introduced me to Virginia Woolf and Alice Walker and to the feminist ideals that have molded my teaching, my work, my parenting. Karen Tidmarsh – college advisor, taught me about the importance of empathy, grace, and kindness in teaching. – Beth Posner

I’d love to talk to my kindergarten teacher, Miss Payne. She kept track of her students and I received a high school graduation card from her. She was amazing. So loving and kind, yet firm. We loved her. I would thank her for recognizing that I was a gifted reader and accelerating and differentiating the reading curriculum for me. – Sally Merryman

High school teacher Jan Glitzenstein, English teacher for poetry and American Writers. We’re friends today and I thank her for her influence in my life on a regular basis. – Jean Bolduc

It’s a tie. High School English teacher, Eagles, High School History & Govt, Dees, and Band, Holman. They were the reasons I went into teaching. – Mark Kleinschmidt

High School German teacher Herr Barr. He was beloved, patient, kind, just oozed empathy towards us young adults who were in such a turbulent time in our development. -Meredith Morovati

Favorite – 6th grade teacher. She ran a tight ship but was never mean. She was excellent at teaching and every day she read to us after lunch. One of my favorite books she read was “Island of The Blue Dolphins” – Martha Mendenhall Gillespie

My favorite teacher was my college English Lit and Women’s Studies teacher, Nancy Huse. She broke me of the habit of starting every sentence with “I might be wrong but”….by reminding me that I was very rarely wrong when it came to analyzing literature. -Kate Kennedy

Randy Adams for being my first voice teacher, high school choir director, early artistic motivator and imperfectly perfect role model. -Jacquie Marx

I wish I could talk to my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Holzschuher. She was fearless. We were 5 and using power tools. We built stilts and made wooden jigsaw puzzles, we planted seeds, and we hatched chicks. I would thank her for those experiences, and for the lesson she doesn’t know she taught me. – Alicia Stemper

1st grade, Mrs. Rich. I loved her. She didn’t believe in look/see reading and taught us phonics, which is why I still love to read all these years later. – Debbie Crane

Mrs. Robinson – If we brought an apple for lunch she would peel it for us with a knife. One long stretch of peel would come off the apple, not little pieces, we were amazed. Vicki Boyer

Best teacher ever! Easily Gene Medlar at the Ballet School of Chapel Hill. He can teach a tap concept so clearly and celebrates the students where they are. -Nikki Harmony

Miss Brady, English teacher. I was in Spanish across the hall, bored and misbehaved. I got sent to the hall several days a week. Miss Brady asked why I was in the hall everyday and told me to come into her class and learn something instead of wasting my time. I purposely got kicked out of Spanish from that day on and went to Miss Brady’s class instead. She was a great teacher. I am 88 years old and it was a different world then. This would never happen today. -Martha Carmichael

My first grade teacher was Dee Dudley Mayfield at CFS. She also taught all three of my kids. I love our relationship as adults. It was a truly unique experience. -Lisa Crabtree Hess

This is an unfair question because if you were CHCCS your whole life, you were lucky enough to have a lot of great teachers. Freddie Kiger for Civil War History was one of them. – Emily Scroggs

My 1st grade teacher, Emily Hodgson Kubica, came to visit me at Ephesus last year, where I have taught for the last 28 years. We all loved her! Also loved my high school math teacher, Jim Ebert. He made the incomprehensible comprehensible, a gifted educator for sure. – Kristen Gardner Venema

 

My favorite teacher, freshman year of high school, Mr. Prosnit. He was young, right out of college, and opened my eyes and mind to history and politics. It all clicked. I remember when I became a critical thinker. Mr. Prosnit taught me how to analyze and evaluate information by observing, experiencing, reflecting, and communicating what we were discussing and then applying that reasoning to form my own conclusions and ultimately turning that knowledge into positive actions. Blew my mind! I went onto college and grad school and often used the skills that Mr. Prosnit taught me when I was 14. A great teacher is gold! 

Over the years I wondered if Mr. Prosnit was still teaching, so I explored Facebook to see if I could find him. I did indeed find him — and friended him! I learned that he left teaching soon after I graduated from high school, and attended rabbinical school to become a Rabbi. Today he is a Rabbi in Connecticut. This is where the story begins to get fun. Last week I saw a Facebook post that he will be in Durham as the visiting Rabbi at Judea Reformed for six months. Wait a second! How lucky could I be. Of course I messaged him and set up a coffee date — and now, it got tricky. I always called him “Mr. Prosnit.” That didn’t seem right anymore, I mean, we are only 7 years apart and I never really knew him as a Rabbi, that didn’t feel right either. So I asked him, “What do I call you?” He said “Jim” is just fine. We had coffee, caught up and promised to break bread over Shabbat dinner real soon. 

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Penny and her family moved to Chapel Hill in 1998. She soon joined the Town of Chapel Hill’s Telecommunications and Technology advisory board and was appointed by the town to the OWASA board of directors where she served 6 years and held the Vice Chair position. In 2009 she ran and was elected to the town council in Chapel Hill, and in 2012 ran and was elected to the BOCC where she served 8 years, the last two as chair of the board. Penny owns and operates a personal chef and catering company and has been published in Cary Magazine, Gourmet Magazine, INDY Week, Southern Neighbor and News14. She lives in Carrboro with her mom Jersey Jacky. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram

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