#161 - BD

#161 was my favorite high school teacher, which is kinda funny, because he taught me least favorite high school subject...Math.  I do credit him with getting me as far as I have gotten in the Math world however.  Despite hating it, I do spend my days alternating between measuring angles (shoulder and knee range of motion), and balancing the office checkbook, calculating payroll taxes, and managing aging accounts.  Lots and lots of math...everyday. 

For those of you who haven't guessed yet, #161 was Brother Donald.  He was part of the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, looked a little like Elmer Fudd, and loved me too.  I was a great student.  I was the student that did the even's when he only assigned the odd's for homework (read - nerd).  I wrote neatly.  I skipped proper finger spaces.  When I erased, I did so completely.  My notebook at the end of the nine weeks was as orderly as when I bought it off of the shelf at K&B after orientation.  Brother Donald helped to cultivate and instill these traits in me.  I have thought of him often over the years, especially when helping my kids with math homework.  I can hear his voice when I tell them, "You cannot get the correct answer, if you are seeing the wrong answer by not erasing completely." or "If you do not write neatly, in straight lines, you open yourself up to careless errors."  I never met a math problem that I didn't feel I at least had a shot at solving because of the skills he taught me.  Even though some of it was very hard for me to grasp, I always fell back on the basics to get me through.  I am positive that this is why I did so well in Physics also.

I remember one time when I was in high school, my mom and dad invited "the Brothers" over to our house to eat dinner with us.  Brother Donald came and asked if I had done my homework yet.  I told him that I was doing it and almost finished.  He asked if he could see where I was working.  He checked out my room where I did my homework either lying on my floor or at my desk.  He asked if I ever did it with the TV or the radio on.  (I remember thinking, "Yeah, right.  Did he ever meet my mom?")  "No sir," I answered.  He just smiled.  Later on that evening he told me that he knew that I would be organized in my homework space because it showed through in my work.  I have never forgotten that.  To this day, even at my office, when I have charts piled upon charts, bills sticking out, and yellow sticky notes one on top of the other...I will usually stop...take a deep breath...and organize my desk into piles of priority.  Then I will tackle one pile at at time.  Throwing away trash and filing as I go until the problems are completed. 

Thank you Brother Donald for teaching me that (a+b) = (b+a), angles can be obtuse, acute, or right, and that there is a reason there is an eraser on the back of a pencil.  Thanks also for teaching me great study skills by rewarding positive behavior.  I don't know what came first...the OCD or Brother Donald, but both worked together to help me develop a good, organized work ethic (with some help from you mom.)  Now, if I could only teach this to my boys...I know I would really make Brother Donald proud.

One final note...after I graduated, each Christmas I would receive a Christmas card from Brother Donald in his very neat handwriting.  He would send wishes for a  Merry Christmas.  As the years passed, these wishes for first for me, then to Jeff and I, and then to Jeff and I and our family.  He never missed a year.  I always looked forward to his cards and since his death several years ago, experience a pang of sadness each year when the cards don't come. 

I can only hope that I am able to pass on some of what he taught me to my boys and that they will also have teachers that are able to teach them not only reading, writing, and arithmatic, but life lessons also.