Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

Today I would like to take a shot at the blog contest we’re running here at Top School Fundraisers. I won’t officially be entering the contest, as I am an “employee”, but the topic itself is just too good to pass up. So, here is my “un-official” post on “My Favorite Teacher”.

I had heard about Mike Smith long before I was ever old enough sit in his class. Sophomores and juniors and seniors at Saline High School in Saline, Michigan, talked proudly about hanging out with him, about the projects they completed for him, and how cool he was as a teacher.

Whenever I would pass him in the hallway between classes, there was always a group of kids following along behind him. He was the only male teacher who had long hair, and in our school, which was fairly conservative, that gave him a real cache.

Sometimes, if I had the occasion to walk past his classroom door while he was teaching, I’d peek inside and see him sitting on a desktop, leading class, engaged like I always thought a college professor would be. He’d urge on his students toward academic greatness. This was back in the mid-1980s when the movie Dead Poets Society was still fresh in our minds, and I imagined him as our very own “O, Captain my Captain.”

Because he was, in addition to teaching American literature, English composition, and Advanced Placement History, the cross country running coach, he walked with a bounce in his step. It was almost as if he were going to break into a jog right there in the hallway. He taught that way, as well. You never knew when he was going to break into something unexpected, something even a bit wild.

I ended up having Mr. Smith for each of the three classes he taught during my high school career. The moment that sticks out like it happened only yesterday came in my 11th grade American Literature class. We were doing a unit on poetry, and after studying the classics of the genre for a couple of weeks, he brought in a brand new recording by an artist named Bruce Springsteen. The song was called “Born in the U.S.A.”, and he passed out copies of the written lyrics for all of us.

Mr. Smith treated this rock anthem with as much respect as he gave Walt Whitman. He showed us how literary greatness didn’t just inhabit the 19th century. By throwing Springsteen, a rock star, in with the greatest American poets, he said that modern day artistic expressions had value and worth. Up until that point, no adult had ever validated modern culture in that way to me. It was a breakthrough moment in my intellectual development.

In my senior year, I took AP History, which was a real challenge. At this level, Mr. Smith demanded great work from us. Since AP classes can result in college credit, he taught the class with colligate level expectations. Our understanding of the topics covered had to be deeper, our writing had to be shaper, and our interpretations had to be more precise. At the beginning of this class, I was nervous and had doubts about my ability to succeed in this class. By the end, I was so proud to have passed the final exam and received the college credit I was after. I owe that accomplishment and the personal growth that accompanied it to Mr. Smith.

I mentioned that Mr. Smith was also the high school cross country coach. While I was never on the team, I did develop a real passion for running, albeit at a much more plodding pace than he was used to in his runners. Nonetheless, he encouraged me, gave me pointers, and treated me with as much respect as he gave the best runners on his squad. I would stop by his desk after class and share with him that I just ran five miles for the first time or that I broke a personal speed record, and he’d be genuinely happy for me. Just those few minutes of affirmation that he shared meant the world to me and kept me going.

The best teachers are the ones who make you raise your game. They demand more out of you and, as a result, you become a better, more evolved individual. On both an academic and a personal level, Mr. Mike Smith made me a better person, not only for the time I was in his class, but for all the years that have followed. Thank you, Mr. Smith.

Sincerely,

Jim Berigan

Like this post? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter or RSS Feed!

Comments RSS