Thinking back about a Teacher.

...my first task....come up with a teaching example from the past that got etched into my mind as an example of good practice.  This should be pretty easy, right?  I mean, I'm surrounded by people whom teach a good part of every day and whom presumably honed their teaching skill through any number of first class terrors, multiple mind-numbing deliveries of Power Points, trying to master a subject and look very erudite, sometimes the night before teaching students that same information. Then there are Lord knows how many not-so eagerly anticipated course evaluations...and the myriad of puzzled faces on students whom just ain't getting it. We're a proficient bunch, we is!

Maybe this isn't so easy? But I have my favourites; that is, a couple of teachers across my educational career who just managed to do a fine job of helping us all get it each and every day.  I think especially of Dr. E.C. Lougheed or 'Sam' as he insisted we call him..I see him now, all those years ago at the U of Goo (University of Guelph for those sheltered souls...), teaching us about the finer points of Post-harvest Handling and Storage of Fruits and Vegetables.  Riveting. No, really, food preservation is just as important as growing the stuff.  I mean, what's the point of growing it if you can't keep it, even for a little while? But I digress. What I remember about Sam was that he was engaged...freakishly, almost excessively, feverishly in a way, but engaged he was. His calling, his love for what he was expert in, truly expert in, simply made you feel privileged for witnessing him in his element.  You knew you were getting something special when he was in 'mode.' The depth of his understanding, his tolerance for the vast majority of students some only vaguely with any notion, sitting there rapt. He was typically and characteristically unfettered. And he enabled each student by making sure that every student could find a way in, as it were.  No Power Points, I don't even recall any slides or plastic overheads, just Sam talking, engaging and making sure that we all felt a part of the class that day. No real or at least discernible pressure either...just this jolly, easy-to-laugh Konrad Lorenz type figure, the quintessential university professor.  And everyone has something to say in his class...no pressure, no problem.

Makes me smile as I recall him all these years later.  Yet my best, my favourite, memories of him as a teacher, an educator aren't confined to the classroom.  You see, Sam was accessible. Imagine, a teacher whom had the time, found the time to answer no end of what I'm sure upon reflection must have been some fairly imbecile questions. Every question merited his attention. And every question answered in a manner that left me with a yearning for more.  Damn that infernal, stupid upside down pyramid of knowledge!...learning leaves you realizing how much you really don't know or understand.  I hate that!

Thank-you Sam for that gift and every perspective ... plus each and every jolly moment because that's what it and they were.  Gifts. Indeed, his example is likely the example I aspire to follow most today...passion, availability, inclusive, humour, ever-learning, always striving to disseminate that knowledge that'll get someone, somewhere...still working on the patience bit but it's coming!  I said, it's coming!  All aspects that are laudable, but all non-confining enough to allow each person to be an individual because that's okay.  That's it.  Before each class, I should think of Sam..how would he do it?