Women often keep their age a secret; what I'm about to post makes my age pretty clear. Tonight's remarks by Steve Boig and the viewing of All the President's Men brought up so many memories for me. I was in junior high in 1974 and happened to be in Ms. Behnke's Civics class. Ms. Behnke was the first teacher that every made me think about the world and start to ask questions. I had a great interest in politics and she and I had many conversations about the Watergate scandal. Today my politics are much more inline with hers but at the time I just couldn't (wouldn't) believe that President Nixon would have anything to do with anything criminal. The Kansas City Star (Times) often reprinted Woodward and Bernstein's articles along with others. Somedays I'd bring in an article for her to read and on other days she would return the favor. She engaged my mind, got me reading the newspaper and challenged my thinking in a way that made me feel special. I'd never had a teacher before that cared enough about me to be willing to argue. When Ms. Behnke turned out to be right about Nixon I was so upset. I dreaded going to her class the day the Star published an article that made it pretty clear that she was right. I tried to sneak in without her saying anything. She let me off the hook but came over at the end of the hour and gave me a little hug. Mrs. Behnke actually left teaching just a few years later and went on to become the national president of the NEA. I'll never forget how much she taught me in 1974.
Debbie Glenn
This post really hits home for me and I'm sure others have similar stories. I wanted to be a high school journalism teacher because of my high school journalism teacher. I look at all the work we are doing here and am so excited to take it back to the classroom. I want to use it to try to be a fraction of the teacher Mrs. Somers was for me. Talking with everyone I get the same sense of that. We're all here to better ourselves with the goal of bettering our students. Or maybe we just like working 12-hour days, most away from our families, in Phoenix in the the dead of summer. Thank you all for sharing this experience.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing that!
ReplyDelete