Teachers Who Changed my Life

From school girl crushes and inspired learning to near trauma, there are a few teachers in my many years of academics that made a significant and lasting impression on my life. (I don’t mean to ignore all of the teachers I’ve had outside of academia but those may be too many to name.) Below is a list and description of how my life was affected. I have used the names by which I called them. Some I never knew their first name, other’s I never called them by their last.

Mrs. Foster, Second Grade, Mountain Avenue Elementary School- This woman was the single worst teacher I ever had. I hated her so in protest, I never did any of my work. First off, I thought everything she assigned was way too easy and I didn’t understand why I had to do it if I already knew how. I wanted to LEARN something and she was totally against that. She told my mother that I asked too many questions and that I’d been raised wrong for doing so. When she used the exact works, “I will break that child if it’s the last thing I do,” my mother had her fired.

Mrs. Roselle, Sixth Grade, Mountain Avenue Elementary School- Mrs. Roselle was the first person who made me think that I might be good at any kind of writing. I’d never particularly liked writing assignments and remember many agonizing nights sitting over blank sheets of paper trying to write book reports. However, in 6th grade I wrote a poem and she loved it. She called me a poet laureate. I had no idea what that was but I thought it was kind of cool.

Miss Skinner, Seventh Grade, Rosemont Middle School- Bay far, the most anal retentive teacher I ever had before or since. In Advanced English she taught us how to outline a sentence, parts of a sentence and how to properly write a Five Paragraph Essay. These are tools that I have remembered my entire life and use, literally, every single day. I’ve even taught these lessons to many students based on exactly what I learned from Miss Skinner. As a side note, there was a big rumor that she had been a nun which turned out to be untrue but was incredibly believable.

Mrs. Jackson (nee’ Hutichson), Eight Grade, Rosemonet Middle School- I had English, Drama and Journalism with Mrs. Jackson. The first time I’d ever taken a school based Drama class and participated in school plays. She was so inspiring and really awakened a new world to me. I would spend the rest of my academic years focusing on Drama. This is also the only Journalism class I ever took.

Brent Beerman, Ninth through Twelfth Grade, Crescenta Valley High School- I had Brent for Drama for four years and English for one year. He directed almost all of the school plays that I was in and there were years where I arguably spent more time with him than my own family. To a girl who had been raised in a fairly sheltered conservative community, Brent was like nobody I had known. Furthermore, he pushed me to learn, to work and to embrace my emotions in ways I didn’t know possible. He very possibly saved my life by offering an outlet when I needed one more than I needed air to breath or water to drink. I don’t know that I can name all the ways that Brent truly taught me but his influence is a huge part of who I am today. I am a more enlightened, accepting, creative person for having had him as a mere public school teacher.

Mme Cohen, Ninth through Eleventh Grade, Crescenta Valley High School- Madame Cohen was a batty French teacher to say the least. She was often either drunk or hung-over and not less than once did she stumble over her own feet. However, she taught me French, a language I would use when I lived in France, which had been a lifelong dream. I battled with my parents to take French. “You live in Southern California, you’ll take Spanish,” my father said, “When will your ever use French?” “When I live in France!” I yelled back. “Like that’s going to ever happen,” he responded with sarcasm. It would be a few years later that I called him from a payphone in Paris and said, “Good thing I took French.”

Ms. Morris, Tenth Grade, Crescenta Valley High School- Ms. Morris seemed to be a great appreciator of literature. You can’t help but value when someone is passionate about something. When reading a book, one of the things she asked us to look for was “beautiful language”. This was probably the first time I ever looked at literature as beautiful and to this day I strive to use beautiful language in my own work.

Mr. Keyes, Tenth and Twelfth Grade, Crescenta Valley High School- I had Mr. Keyes for both Sociology and Government. He regularly promoted political and social debate and always kept a sense of humor about things. I frequently opened my big mouth and took on the rest of the classroom on topics ranging from Vegetarianism to the Flag Salute. A mild mannered, medium sized man with huge glasses, he somewhat resembled a frog. He was in his 50’s when I had him and he might have been my first little crush on a teacher. I was so attracted to his mind that it overcame both age and froggishness.

Debbie Martinson Twelfth Grade, Crescenta Valley High School- Debbie taught senior year Advanced English, a class that was not required for either graduation or college entry. Those of us in the class literally took it as an elective and in the hopes of gaining an upper edge when college applications went out. Debbie also taught at Occidental College and was one of the reasons that I was accepted at Oxy. She molded and coaxed creativity and free thinking in a school that otherwise frowned upon anything other than driving cattle from one pasture to another.

Jamie Angell, Occidental College- I don’t remember how many classes I had with Jamie for but I know I took Intro to Acting and Acting I with him. He was my first “professional” acting teacher and he was amazing. He pushed me to expand my mind, emotions and body in ways that I didn’t know I could. He didn’t just teach me how to be An Actor, he taught me how to be a person who acts, reacts, receives and responds.

Dale Wright, Occidental College- Dale was a neighbor of mine growing up. He helped me get into Oxy and first sparked my interested in Religion. My freshman year I took his class Intro to Eastern Religion and never turned back. I ended up majoring in Religion and Dale became my advisor. It was something in my life that had never been nurtured and I felt a huge void because of it. To this day I’m incredibly passionate about spirituality, religion and cultural traditions. I strive to continue learning about them and growing in my own understandings.

John Bouchard, Occidental College- I think that I had John for several classes over my four years of college. However, I most remember Acting II. John challenged me, pushed me, frustrated me, overwhelmed me and taught me that being the best can always be improved. Every Chemistry major who thought being a Theatre major was a breeze had never taken a class with John Bouchard. Ultimately, I learned from John that perfection is never done and that constant learning and changing is required to keep from stagnation. I love him for this.

Laurel Meade, Occidental College- Laurel Mead is an amazing playwright and an amazing person to know if you have even the mildest interest in theatre. I took her Playwriting class. It was wonderful. I filled notebook after notebook with ideas, dialogue, fantasies and plotlines. What came out was by far one of the worst plays ever written. However, there are still moments in it that I love and occasionally I drag it out and work on it.

Jill O’Hora, Oxford University- I took Jill’s Detective Fiction class while at Oxford. I just thought that it would be a fun Lit. class and an easy “A”. Little did I know that it would spark a deep passion for Detective Fiction in general and Inspector Morse in specific. Detective Fiction makes up the great bulk of what I’ve read over the last 10 years and most likely years to come. I find a character I like and then have to read everything they are in. I also make a point to never solve the mystery before the end of the book. That just ruins the fun. If I accidentally solve the mystery it’s always a great disappointment to me.

Professor Elmer Griffin, Occidental College- Professor Griffin’s photo was in the college handbook I received as a freshman. I thought he was so hot I cut it out and put it on my dorm room wall. He taught all the coolest classes that everyone wanted to get into but was rumored to be the hardest teacher at our school. A professor of Religion and Psychology he was also a clinical psychologist and taught stuff like Psychological Theories of Evil and Whiteness. I had him for both Rasta and African American Religious Traditions. He opened my eyes to cultural practices in my own country that I didn’t know existed so deeply. And they weren’t all good. I didn’t know how sheltered I had been to so many things right under my nose. For a midterm assignment he asked us to write a 20 page essay with a partner. He wanted us to understand what it felt like to be mentally chained to another person for survival. My partner and I worked our asses off. We went into his office hours every chance possible do discuss what we were working on, if we were going the right direction and how we could improve. We broke the curve and got the first “A” he’d given out in 5 years. Everyone else in the class hated us and a rumor started that one or both of us had slept with him. I WISH!