If we Choose, we can be a Great Teacher
Adela Anne Bradlee, in her short story reflection “You Elevated My Spirit,” writes about her first day of school in 1960.
The seconds ticked away as they waited for their new teacher to enter. They dared not speak, expecting to be caught by a hunched-over schoolmarm in a sweater fastened with a gold chain. Adela expected the teacher to peer at the kids through thick classes with pointed frames while wagging her finger in admonishment. Heavy sighs filled the room, knuckles cracked, eyebrows questioned, shoulders shrugged. Your grand entrance, Mr. Barlow, she writes, was worth the wait.
They watched him dash in, long wavy hair flowing behind him, leather tassels hanging off each suede sleeve. A white 10-gallon hat crowned him, a relic of an era gone by or maybe yet to come (for this was after all 1960). Removing the cowboy hat in a sweeping motion, he bent at the waist and raised himself upright. With a baritone laugh, he smiled and twirled his handlebar mustache.
“My name is Mr. Barlow,” he enunciated resonantly, then proceeded to write it on the board. Slapping chalkboard dust off his hands, he perched on the corner of his desk.
“Now tell me who you are and your favorite thing in the world,” he said.
One by one, the kids mumbled their answers, not knowing quite what to make of their new teacher. He taught the whole day, never explaining his get-up. They found themselves smiling through geography, science, match, English and penmanship.
When they walked in the next day, he was in the same outfit and greeted each of the students by name: “Hello Suzy, who loves her Barbie dolls, and aren’t you Tommy, who has three GI Joes?” As quickly as Mr. Barlow learned the kids names, he learned their strengths and weaknesses and they always found the positive in the kids.
Even, Adela reflects, Catherine. Adela had known Catherine since the first grade. She would walk into a room with her head down, then slink into her chair to become invisible. The teachers rarely called on her because she broke out in tears when she didn’t know the answers. That was usually the case in math. They were studying their times tables when one morning…“Catherine” Mr. Barlow cried out. All eyes turned to the panicked child, then back to Mr. Barlow. “Would you tell me what your favorite number is?”
After an uncomfortable pause, she whimpered as if being tested, “Nine?”
“Excellent! That’s my favorite number, too. Ask me why”, he said with a sly grin.
“Why” the class all said in. unison.
“Because.” With a piece of chalk, he quickly wrote a shortcut to learning the multiplication table for the number 9. Catherine’s face shone with her newfound knowledge and understanding.
“So Catherine, if nine is your favorite number, what number should you like twice as much?” He pointed to the board helpfully.
“Eighteen?” Catherine answered haltingly.
“Me too! I like 18 as much as 9. Which number do you think I like three times as much?”
And so it went, the kids heads ping-ponging from Mr. Barlow to Catherine and back again until the lesson was completed.
Match over, Mr. Barlow deferred to the little girl sitting up proudly. “Take a bow Catherine,” he said dramatically.
She did, & the class broke out in spontaneous applause. From then on, they rooted for her & all the Catherines in their class. Mr. Barlow elevated them, & then they look the lead from him and elevated one another.
Adela remembered clearly the day Mr. Barlow taught a lesson to Dennis, the class clown and occasional bully. Dennis had mercilessly teased a classmate, unaware Mr. Barlow had witnessed the unacceptable behavior. The kids held their breaths waiting for the teacher to put a end to the cruelty.
“Stand up, Dennis,” he said sternly. Startled, Dennis quickly collected himself and laughingly got up. “Repeat after me,” he continued. “I am ashamed of myself for making Mary feel bad.”
Dennis repeated the sentence with a grin on his face, causing some of the class to giggle uncomfortably.
A few seconds later the bell rang, and the students were astonished to watch the usually unfazed Dennis slump into his seat, put his head in his hands, and sob in loud, gasping heaves. No one was more astonished than Mr. Barlow. He rushed to the side of Dennis while the other kids herded to recess. Mr. Barlow, the frontiersman, Adele writes, held the Huck Finn look-alike in his arms and talked soothingly in his ear. After 15 minutes of free play, the rest of the class had almost forgotten about the scene that had taken place in class. The kids came back in the room wiping their mouths after a hasty drink and looked over at Dennis. He was composed and looking very much like his old rascally self. They got out their old science books and waited for him to teach the days lesson. He did.
He turned to the class “As you know, I embarrassed Dennis earlier today. I want all of you to know that I am very sorry. No one has the right to shame another person. If I had a problem with the way Dennis was acting, I should have spoken to him in private. Anyway,” he smiled to lighten the mood, “we’ve both learned something today, haven’t we Dennis?” He winked at Dennis who turned scarlet and covered his face, his eyes shining brightly through his fingers.
All of the kids, Adela notes, seemed to excel at something in his eyes. Often he’d let Dennis tell the class a joke just before 3 o clock rolled around. Catherine recited the items tables flawlessly by semesters end. And Adele says she got to follow in his footsteps. Not though by becoming a teacher.
There was a day when he gathered the kids around and finally revealed the reason for his eccentric appearance. He had been playing Wild Bill Hickok in the ongoing musical “Annie Get Your Gun” at the Community Theater. This elicited muffled “wows” as the kids, eyes wide open and mouths agape, knowing there was more to the story. Then he told them they were going to put on a production for the school; they put on “Cinderella.” At the end of the week, he cast the parts. She got the lead. Looking back though she says Mr. Barlow would probably not get the job as a casting director in a Broadway production.
For one night, Adela says she was a beautiful princess; but for a lifetime, she would be a self assured woman.
On the outside she looked more like one of Cinderella’s nasty stepsisters than Prince Charming’s Bride-to-Be, but on the inside she glowed. A glow she says that Mr. Barlow ignited and time would never diminish, a glow that Dennis and Catherine and she will pass on forever.
Last week, we had our first day of school at Saint Joe’s, and it’s been such a joy to be here and see the great things in the school. How time flies – my first year here this years graduating 8th graders were kindergartners.
As we get back into fall and start a new school year, I first and foremost want to thank our amazing teachers here at Saint Joes and Principal Kelly Roche; it’s such a joy to visit classes, get to know the kids, and be a part of our school Masses. We have such a dedicated group of teachers who love the kids so much, and put such care into helping them grow.
With that, I’d also just encourage all of us to remember we are teachers too through our baptism and confirmation. For parents in particular, the Church teaches they are the primary teachers of their children – and before all of us we have the choice to be like Mr. Barlow. He saw each child as unique, and worked to bring out their gifts. He showed patience. He showed humility, recognizing when he had hurt a student’s feelings and showed empathy and compassion and mercy.
In our world today, we are so used to quick results, but people don’t work like that.
May we strive to be patient with one another, & never forget inside each person is such potential for greatness & happiness – as Mr. Barlow did for so many of his students over the years. Let us strive to do the same through how we teach one another; for we can fan the flames of faith, hope & love in one another or extinguish them through our indifference, our negativity or giving up. We’ve all had an amazing teacher or two who saw deep into us and brought out the good – let us do the same for one another.
A big “thank you” to all of our teachers both at Saint Joes and to all parents – and have a wonderful upcoming school year.
God bless, ~Fr. Paul
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September 2024