[For this year’s
annual post-Charlottesville-trip series, I wanted to share tributes to various
folks who were important influences during my Cville years. Leading up to a
special weekend post on a peer of mine who’s aiming to become a Cville
influence in 2019!]
Before I move on
to two other influential figures, four more teachers who made my experience in
the Cville Public Schools so much better:
1) Mr.
Hickerson and Bruce: My 8th grade English teacher, Mr. Alan Hickerson,
runs a very close second to Monday’s subject, Mr. Heartwell, as the most
inspiring and impressive teacher of my pre-college years. The whole of that
year with him was hugely meaningful for me, but if I had to highlight one
moment, it’d be a couple classes when he had us bring in and analyze songs of
our choosing. My choice was Bruce’s
“The River,” then and now probably my favorite single song of Bruce’s
(although “American Skin (41 Shots)” always gives it a run for its money), and
the resulting discussion, and especially my attempt to articulate why I read
the end of the song (and thus its whole arc and story and meaning) in the way
that I did, was a transformative moment for me for sure.
2) Ms.
Vandever, Ms. Wilroy, and Pop Quiz: I think it’s fair to say that feeling like
a true part of a community can be tough for any high school student, and that it’s
tougher still for those (like us nerds) who are decidedly uncool. Starting in
my sophomore year of high school, I was very fortunate to find precisely such a
nerdy community in our school’s Pop Quiz team, run by two wonderful English teachers,
Ms. Patricia
Vandever and Ms. Ivy
Wilroy (now Caravati). I loved my teammates, our many competitions and
trips (as far as Duke University and Washington, DC, among others), and, yes,
our not-infrequent victories. But a great deal of what made Pop Quiz so special
was the commitment and effort put in, and the atmosphere created, by these two
teachers who gave so freely of their time and energy. To this day a number of
my best childhood memories came from this community that they created.
3) Ms.
Perkins and Tutoring: In my senior year of high school, I was one of five
students who were eligible for and chose to take a class in Multivariable
Calculus. Because it was such a small cohort, our young and very enthusiastic
and cool (in the best sense) teacher, Ms.
Terri Perkins, made the class very much about our individual identities and
perspectives, including a creative assignment for which I made a Choose Your
Own Adventure math book that I still remember very fondly. But by far the most
meaningful feature was a unit in which each of us worked with one student from
a more remedial math class to help him or her pass a standardized test that
they needed in order to move to their next year’s class; I know I had tutored
before in one context or another, but I remember those couple of weeks, and
even particular choices of mine (that did work, that didn’t) and exchanges
between us, much more fully and specifically. My tutoree passed, and I don’t
think I had a prouder or happier moment in high school.
Next Cville
influence tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Influential
people you’d highlight?
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