The Teacher See-Saw

When I tell my college students I hated grade school but preferred college, they're always surprised. This statement often shocks my colleagues. 

Unfortunately for me, school life did not often prove as nurturing. On a few occasions, I would find that one teacher, but, most teachers did not seem to notice.

In elementary school, my teacher was so busy trying to get me tested into Special Ed that she didn't see I was a budding artist. When I returned as a high school peer counselor to that elementary school, the other teachers asked her why she had not known about my artwork.

In Catholic School, my Spanish Language teacher encouraged my writing after I turned in a poem. She also stopped my classmates from teasing me for being a left-hander. She was the first teacher to carefully show how I must position my paper.

During most of public school Reading and English, one middle school teacher gave me advice for my writing.

In 10th grade, the Art teacher actually carved over my work and said she was trying to 'correct' it. I was drawing furry characters... *sigh* I was disheartened but my mom was angered by the incident.

The next year, another Art teacher encouraged me to perfect my animal characters. She was so wonderfully weird and inspiring that I took her second level class in my senior year. She's the art director for my high school, last I checked.

One English teacher accused me of plagiarism. And had to give me my good grades when I did exceptionally well on the SAT Practice Test, and my book report on the hated Great Gatsby. 

Another told me I should take her Honors course.

Finally, in community college, an English professor encouraged me to register for Creative Writing, a course I had never heard of(Yes! Be shocked)!