Teachers I have known - Chapter 1

I attended the Worldwide Leadership Training meeting Saturday. The focus was on teaching. Elder Holland led a great discussion on teaching. But I found myself pondering on President Monson's talk about great teachers in his life.

I started thinking about teachers who had made a difference in my life. I was surprised that the list was quite short. Maybe - and this is probably so - I have forgotten whole chunks of my earlier life!!

I hope it doesn't mean that I haven't had that many great teachers. (How else to explain who I am today!!??)

But more are from school than from church. In fact, I can't remember the name of one single Primary teacher!!

But the one Primary teacher I do remember, although not by name, actually didn't help me, rather she gave me an almost life-long complex about my ability to learn new things. Let me explain.

When I was in Primary, the older girls' class was called "Seagulls." In order to move on to "mutual" you had to make a piece of needlework - either knitting or crocheting. I couldn't seem to get the hang of either one of them. I did produce a pile of "chaining" which for the uninformed is how you start to crochet something. She let this "count" and I was moved on. She told me that some people just couldn't do certain things, and crocheting was something I just couldn't do.

I never learned to swim as a child, but when I was 14, my brother Charlie almost drowned at a Cub Scout activity. After that my mom took us all over to the public pool and signed us up for lessons. It's a little tough to learn to swim at 14 when the class is full of children much younger than you. I didn't do well. The teacher actually told me that maybe I was too old to learn. And I believed her. (And everyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of a swimmer.)

Then in high school, we had tennis in P.E., and I did badly. My teacher, Mrs. Lazurus, told me that some people just couldn't play tennis, and I must be one of them. I liked Mrs. Lazurus, and she once gave me some excellent advice that I have remembered my whole life. But her assertion in this case was probably not helpful. (And certainly everyone knows I'm not much of a tennis player.)

Many years later, a friend made some charming little crocheted Christmas tree ornaments, and I wanted to buy some from her. She said she'd show me how to make them - they were a cinch. I said, oh, I can't crochet. Well, I will teach you she said. You don't understand I said, I'm one of those people who can't learn to crochet. To this she asserted that there was no such thing as someone who couldn't learn to crochet - and she proceeded to teach me how!! (And I've been crocheting ever since!)

I guess you could say that she was an excellent teacher!! (Her name was Lorraine Gould.)

I thought I'd do one post of "Teachers I have known" but maybe this will be Chapter 1!