#19 - PB

I was born and raised Catholic.  I attended Catholic schools until college.  Almost everyone around me was raised the same way.  To say that I lived in a relgious bubble would be fair.  I never was interested in other religions and never really thought that much about them.  Until I met #19.  She was my 11th grade Religion teacher and her job was to take her sheltered Catholic school students and educate them about other religions that were out there.  And she did.

First semester we kinda breezed through the Baptists, Epsicopals, and the Methodists.  I mean other than a few differences...  It was the second semester that really got interesting.  I remember learning about The Watchtower, that Mormans don't drink coffee, and about the Torah.  We also touched on the Wiccan religion and about atheists.  I pretty much remember sitting there and just listening and thinking...hmmm, who knew?  Really?  What does coffee have to do with religion?   I also remember some really heated conversations with some of our more passionate students and #19.  All in all, out of the 13 years of Religion classes that I sat through, her's might be the only one that I remember.  She was not the most organized, but she got her points across.  That makes her a great teacher in my book.

The year, my son has #19 for 8th grade Earth Science, and guess what?  He is coming home talking about wind speed and landforms as if it is a new discovery.  I think that whatever #19 teaches, she does it with a passion that pulls you right in and makes you want to learn!  What would school be like if all teachers were this way?  When Jeff and I went to open house for our son this year, we sat in her classroom again as she pushed her ever-falling glasses up her nose, looked frantically around her messy, cluttered, full desk for the notes she wanted to tell parents about, and tried to fit in all she wanted to say before the bell rang...  We just looked at each other and smiled :)