The Mama called, with a surprising message -- one of my high school teachers had a massive stroke, and never really regained consciousness. Her husband has had Alzheimer's for years now, and it is doubtful how much he understands.
Maxine Garland Schut was my English teacher. She taught the basics like English comp -- but I reveled most in her elective classes, meaty stuff like Shakespeare and satire. She was tough -- didn't take any crap. And she insisted on knowing - and using properly - a wider range of vocabulary than we cretins generally subsisted on.
I was a voracious reader before meeting her, but her classes gave me 'permission' in a way to explore more. She probed, asked questions, forced you to defend your opinions. (And praised you when you did, successfully!) She gave me a love for the Bard that endures to this day. (It was actually one of the things the Brick and I shared in common from the first we met...that, plus Gilbert & Sullivan.)
Would I have written for publication without her influence? Become a teacher myself? I think so...but who knows. She inspired this little farm girl to reach to things I'd only dared to dream of, things like grad school and books with my name on them. I am better for having known her.
Turns out that she influenced many people during her thirty-three years of teaching at Sparta High School in Michigan. You can meet her, too, via her obituary.
Thank you, Mrs. Schut, for pouring yourself into your students. I am so grateful you did.
Maxine Garland Schut was my English teacher. She taught the basics like English comp -- but I reveled most in her elective classes, meaty stuff like Shakespeare and satire. She was tough -- didn't take any crap. And she insisted on knowing - and using properly - a wider range of vocabulary than we cretins generally subsisted on.
I was a voracious reader before meeting her, but her classes gave me 'permission' in a way to explore more. She probed, asked questions, forced you to defend your opinions. (And praised you when you did, successfully!) She gave me a love for the Bard that endures to this day. (It was actually one of the things the Brick and I shared in common from the first we met...that, plus Gilbert & Sullivan.)
Would I have written for publication without her influence? Become a teacher myself? I think so...but who knows. She inspired this little farm girl to reach to things I'd only dared to dream of, things like grad school and books with my name on them. I am better for having known her.
Turns out that she influenced many people during her thirty-three years of teaching at Sparta High School in Michigan. You can meet her, too, via her obituary.
Thank you, Mrs. Schut, for pouring yourself into your students. I am so grateful you did.
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