Who knew a 15-year-old boy who struggled with basic algebra had the potential to help younger students improve their math skills? Not me, that's for sure.
But my 10th-grade algebra teacher, Mrs. Bohart, did. I have no idea if she's still alive, but I often think about her as late summer turns into fall.
I entered Mrs. Bohart's algebra I class as a frustrated, even angry, sophomore who'd flunked that course the previous year. My teacher then was a no-nonsense former Marine who favored kids who loved math, but had no patience or sympathy for a kid like me who just didn't get it. Around midyear, he questioned my intellect by asking me what kinds of grades I received in other subjects. I shut down. That one isolated incident remains the seminal moment in my life as a student and teacher.
Mrs. Bohart, like many good teachers, had a sixth sense — the ability to identify a student's latent strength and develop it. She didn't try to drill quadratic equations into my brain. Something told her I had no future as an engineer. Somehow she realized I could possibly teach others. She wasn't sure, of course. How could she be? But she took the kind of risk in the classroom that ended up changing my life.
Because I'd mastered basic math, Mrs. Bohart arranged for me, during a study hall, to tutor seventh- and eighth-graders. Those tutoring sessions counted as test grades so they improved my average. But more importantly, the experience boosted my confidence, which allowed me to survive the rest of my high school math courses.
Early in my teaching career, an elementary school guidance counselor asked me how I could stand to teach the same things year after year. Didn't I get bored? I don't remember how I answered, but I still remember that question. It's why, 17 years ago, I allowed one fourth-grade student, a social misfit, to star in and direct a "Star Trek" episode he'd written. It's why I've discovered that sixth-graders, at first indifferent about the story of the founding of the United States of America, suddenly have a change in heart when they get to play the role of a British soldier in the Boston Massacre, or re-enact the Battle of Bunker Hill.
I never get bored teaching because I'm always challenged. Challenged to find ways to make subject matter accessible to every student, and discover and develop skills students may not know they possess. A single act by a teacher can change a life, for good or bad. 37 years ago, Mrs. Bohart revealed my potential, and I keep that in mind at the beginning of every new school year.
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John Edmondson is a teacher in Hampstead. His column appears weekly in the Derry News.
