teachers, part 2

 As I said in yesterday's blog, I will explain what made so many of my teachers memorable over the next few blogs.

This evening we'll look at Miss Wellington, Mr. Sherman and Mr. Bergdolt.

Miss Wellington was memorable because, during the year I was in her kindergarten class at Zion Lutheran in Fort Wayne (with the marvelous sand table which I have blogged about before) she got married and we students were all invited to the wedding. 

In second grade we lived in New Haven and I had a lovely teacher at New Haven Lutheran whose name I don't remember.  I thought she was beautiful because she had snowy white hair, blue eyes, pink cheeks and a beaming smile.  A perfect second grade teacher.

In third grade my family and I moved to an old house in the country on five acres near Woodburn, my father's home town.  There I attended Woodburn Lutheran School.  It was a small school with two classes to each teacher.  Mr. Sherman was our 3rd and 4th grade teacher.  Not a nice man. He paddled one of my classmates one day with a heavy wooden paddle.  He was interesting though, not because of anything I remember learning in his class but because he had a very prominent Adam's apple.  Think Ichabod Crane and you'll have a good idea of his appearance.  I used to sit entranced as I watched that Adam's apple bob up and down. The faster he talked or the more agitated he became the faster it bobbed.  He probably thought I was paying close attention to whatever he was saying.  

On the positive side, he did read to us every afternoon right after lunch. It was a quiet half hour when we could color quietly while we listened to the book.  That was my favorite part of the day.

By the time Mr. Bergdolt came on the scene our little Woodburn Lutheran School had merged with Bull Rapids Lutheran School, and our fifth and sixth grade classes were held at Bull Rapids School which was out in the country.  Mr. Bergdolt was a nature lover and each spring he took us on several walks through the woods across the road from the school.  He taught us about flowers, like Dutchman's Breeches and Spring Beauties and ferns and mushrooms and kinds of trees and birds and other marvelous things.  I loved those walks.