Last week, I was cutting some western cedar wood to make
Lincoln Logs. The smell of cedar sawdust
brought my mind back to sharpening pencils in elementary school. Today pencils are made with some form of
composite pressed and formed wood pieces, but back in the day, pencils were
made with real western cedar wood. That
smell reminded me of shaking out the pencil sharpener, along with dusting the
chalkboard erasers. Pencils were
reserved for math and pens were for writing.
Thank you, Miss Tigner for showing me how to add and subtract in the
first grade at Old Post Elementary school in 1956, and thank you, Miss Merryman
for teaching me the times tables in the third grade. Thank you, Miss Buis for explaining long
division in the fifth grade, and thank you, Miss Barrett for patiently teaching
me to balance equations in the seventh grade.
Thank you, Mr. Webb for motivating me to learn geometry as a high school
junior and, finally, thank you, Miss Janes for staying with me through
trigonometry as a senior at Edgewood High school. I am sure that all of the above-mentioned
teachers wondered what would ever become of Gerald. Well, he made it … sort of. And he taught others as well. And many of those, my students, are teaching
now. Solomon enigmatically said in
Ecclesiastes 1:9, “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and
that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under
the sun.” Solomon, you are spot on! There have been teachers, there are teachers,
and there will be teachers. And for all
of you teachers reading this post, I give to you a heartfelt, “Thank You!” Keep up the good work!
