.....As 1952 rolled around, I feel by that time, after surviving a war, being the first in my family to graduate from college, getting married, raising children & continuing my studies from Columbia's Teachers College toward a doctorate degree, (which I achieved in 1962) I have been better than "good". In fact, I have to give myself a "good +". But still yearning to reach my goal--of being "great"; to "...follow knowledge like a sinking star. At Columbia, I had some of the very best teachers--poets, writers, Pulitzer Prize winners...including Mark Van Doren; and if I recall--his older brother, Carl for a class; and Lenora Speyer and Padraic and Mary Colem.
,,,,,College to me was like being in a different universe. I took almost every course available in English Literature, in Drama workshops, in creative writing in Shakespeare--and I believe this kind of loading up in subject matter like that helped me when I began to be a teacher.
.....Going to college was a life of its own. To me it was Life #4. By this time, it seemed that for me a "new" life always began and ended with some kind of traumatic event that changed the course of my existence. My tenure at Cranford HS ended in 1954 when I was fired for "incompetence"; the real reason being that I had volunteered to become the teachers' union representative...how do I know this? Because all of my evaluations written by the principal were exemplary. So, I had no trouble finding employment at the high school in Sea Cliff, NY where I taught ninth grade and was also the junior varsity soccer coach; double duty for $4100 a year. I even was able to buy a car...a Chevy DeLuxe. We were able to find a ranch house in East Meadow at a VA 4% loan interest. A year later, the twins, Bobby and Bonny were born. Now we needed additional equipment for them and that made money a scarce item...so, I earned some extra cash by refereeing club soccer games for $10 on weekends. And in 1956 the new high school's construction in Glen Head was complete and grades 7-12 moved to "North Shore H.S. where I taught until I retired 28 years later in 1982.
.....And so ended Life #6. I skipped #5 for another time for a good enough reason; but that will be set down for the next blog posting. Be there.
Fired in the early Fifties for TU activity? Were you or had you ever been......?
ReplyDeleteCuzzin Ruth
By the way, for the interest of your new readership, "Cuzzin Ruth" is 2nd cousin 1X removed to Baron's children, that is, 1st cousin 1X removed to Baron's ex-wife.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, Ruth's very existence - due to a scandalous scoundrel in the family tree - was unknown to all of us until about 10 years ago.
While Baron and Cuzzin Ruth have never met, they have many mutual interests and have come to know each other thru this Blog.
Mmm - NEARLY right, Family Tree Expert!!! At the time when the sundered family was brought together by Joel and my first cousin Peter Martin, which was at a momentous reunion in Washington, I got chatting to the Baron's children about him, and it sounded as though he was interested in many subjects that also interest me. So I asked for his e-address, and commenced being his penpal. It was a while before I unlocked the mysteries of the blog! Cuzzin Ruth
ReplyDeleteI should add that students at Sea Cliff were so wrapped up in being teenagers that we didn't investigate our new English teacher/soccer coach. We didn't know he had just been fired, and we never knew till a few years ago that he had also spent a few years firing upon our WWII enemies. What concerned us was the rather concentrated flak we received from his intellectual guns and his no-nonsense coaching. He was one of those young teachers who came to Sea Cliff in the early 50s and whom art teacher Kitty Strohe called the "cocktail teachers" as opposed to the "cocoa teachers."
ReplyDeleteFor the first time we had classes in World Literature and in creative writing.
Pundits have called our generation "The Silent Generation." After doing a 422 page history of our class (1957) and school, I realized that what we could more aptly be called the Creative Generation. That began as it had for most Americans with creating our own games, competitions, and hobbies out of what we had at hand. Sandy Gleichmann's brother Alan organized a coed tackle football team, The Backyard Terrors and we played in his backyard. Dave Schweers and I made a trampoline out of discarded bed springs and put it over a hole in the sand at the end of Maple Ave. So we were ready for the real creative release came with the influx of new young and different teachers. Doc was one of the important ones.
He says in a recent blog he is always ready for a new challenge. His primary value as a teacher and coach was that he was always ready to issue a new challenge and demand that we meet it.
I should add that students at Sea Cliff were so wrapped up in being teenagers that we didn't investigate our new English teacher/soccer coach. We didn't know he had just been fired, and we never knew till a few years ago that he had also spent a few years firing upon our WWII enemies. What concerned us was the rather concentrated flak we received from his intellectual guns and his no-nonsense coaching. He was one of those young teachers who came to Sea Cliff in the early 50s and whom art teacher Kitty Strohe called the "cocktail teachers" as opposed to the "cocoa teachers."
ReplyDeleteFor the first time we had classes in World Literature and in creative writing.
Pundits have called our generation "The Silent Generation." After doing a 422 page history of our class (1957) and school, I realized that what we could more aptly be called the Creative Generation. That began as it had for most Americans with creating our own games, competitions, and hobbies out of what we had at hand. Sandy Gleichmann's brother Alan organized a coed tackle football team, The Backyard Terrors and we played in his backyard. Dave Schweers and I made a trampoline out of discarded bed springs and put it over a hole in the sand at the end of Maple Ave. So we were ready for the real creative release came with the influx of new young and different teachers. Doc was one of the important ones.
He says in a recent blog he is always ready for a new challenge. His primary value as a teacher and coach was that he was always ready to issue a new challenge and demand that we meet it.