Friday, May 07, 2010
  Mrs Hunholz

Making the milk-bottle cafe model reminded me, through some circuitous mental path, of my second-grade teacher Mrs Hunholz.

Google finds only two references to her, one obit-like paragraph and one mention of her "lifetime teaching achievement" award in 1977. She certainly deserved the latter. Mrs Hunholz spent her life teaching, and had an unparalleled talent.

She taught in Bluemont School, in a working-class area of Manhattan. Though Bluemont was only a few blocks from K-State, very few professors lived on that side of town. Most parents were mechanics or store clerks or Mexican migrants. (My parents didn't stay there long; this was their first year in Manhattan, and they were renting until they could save up enough to buy. The next year they moved into a higher-status area where they could keep up with the Prof Joneses.)

Mrs Hunholz knew how to deal with the wide range of behaviors and intellects that confronted her every year. She didn't need Individualized Education Plans or Diagnostic Criteria for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. (Of course those teacher-crippling devices weren't even imagined yet in 1956.)

She simply understood each kid, organized and delegated the work, and applied learning to every sense and muscle.

How do you keep the smarty-pants kids like me and Judy from getting bored and making trouble? How do you keep the behind-the-curve types like Fernando and Rayleen from getting lost and making trouble?

Mrs H knew how. She assigned the smarty-pants kids to individually tutor the behind-the-curve types. So I taught Fernando to read, Judy taught Rayleen to read, while Mrs H ran the middling types through the regular routine. It worked.

Most of all, Mrs Hunholz kept our hands and eyes and ears and noses and mouths full of learning. Lots of walking field trips to nearby businesses, various types of food always cooking at the back of the classroom. We learned how popcorn pops, how to make hominy from corn, how the bakery makes bread, how the dairy bottles milk and makes butter, how the butcher cuts meat.

She wasn't short on discipline when it was needed. Once I fell under the influence of a big fellow named Charlie, who gave me the choice of helping him bully others or taking the brunt of his bullying. Unfortunately I chose the former, helped Charlie steal crackers from a weak first-grader. Mrs H heard about it somehow, and I spent the next day standing up in the cloakroom among the wet boots and coats.

At the other end of the scale, she knew exactly when to skip organization and discipline. As a classic nerd, I've never been remotely competent at any sort of athletics. When the other boys were playing baseball at recess, I played in the dirt, building roads and houses. Mrs H made one gentle effort to get me into the team play, then apparently decided that I was learning more by building things than by throwing balls. All later teachers, from 3rd grade through 12th, forced me to participate in the ball games. This did not make me a good teammate or a good athlete; it only taught me repeatedly and miserably that nobody wanted me on their team.

You simply can't follow an act like Mrs Hunholz. The next three years of school, in the "better" part of town, presumably had teachers ... but I don't remember any of them. Grades 3,4,5, just a waste of time. It wasn't until Mr Guest in 6th grade that I encountered another real teacher.

= = = = = = = = = =

Here's a super-simplified memory image. Supposed to represent me, Fernando and Judy ... but of course Mrs Hunholz really had 35 kids under her wing!



= = = = =

Much later thought, triggered by NPR's little salute to the 60th anniversary of Charlotte's Web. A couple times Mrs Hunholz took advantage of my adult reading ability, letting me read that book to the class while she went somewhere else. I never had any trouble with the other kids; they apparently sensed that I was approved as "replacement teacher" for a few minutes. Sudden realization: Mrs H did for me exactly what Charlotte did for Wilbur.

Labels:

 


<< Home

blogger hit counter
My Photo
Name:
Location: Spokane

The current icon shows Polistra using a Personal Equation Machine.

My graphics products:

Free stuff at ShareCG

And some leftovers here.

ARCHIVES
March 2005 / April 2005 / May 2005 / June 2005 / July 2005 / August 2005 / September 2005 / October 2005 / November 2005 / December 2005 / January 2006 / February 2006 / March 2006 / April 2006 / May 2006 / June 2006 / July 2006 / August 2006 / September 2006 / October 2006 / November 2006 / December 2006 / January 2007 / February 2007 / March 2007 / April 2007 / May 2007 / June 2007 / July 2007 / August 2007 / September 2007 / October 2007 / November 2007 / December 2007 / January 2008 / February 2008 / March 2008 / April 2008 / May 2008 / June 2008 / July 2008 / August 2008 / September 2008 / October 2008 / November 2008 / December 2008 / January 2009 / February 2009 / March 2009 / April 2009 / May 2009 / June 2009 / July 2009 / August 2009 / September 2009 / October 2009 / November 2009 / December 2009 / January 2010 / February 2010 / March 2010 / April 2010 / May 2010 / June 2010 / July 2010 / August 2010 / September 2010 / October 2010 / November 2010 / December 2010 / January 2011 / February 2011 / March 2011 / April 2011 / May 2011 / June 2011 / July 2011 / August 2011 / September 2011 / October 2011 / November 2011 / December 2011 / January 2012 / February 2012 / March 2012 / April 2012 / May 2012 / June 2012 / July 2012 / August 2012 / September 2012 / October 2012 / November 2012 / December 2012 / January 2013 / February 2013 / March 2013 / April 2013 / May 2013 / June 2013 / July 2013 / August 2013 / September 2013 / October 2013 / November 2013 / December 2013 / January 2014 / February 2014 / March 2014 / April 2014 / May 2014 / June 2014 / July 2014 / August 2014 / September 2014 / October 2014 / November 2014 / December 2014 / January 2015 / February 2015 / March 2015 / April 2015 / May 2015 / June 2015 / July 2015 / August 2015 / September 2015 / October 2015 / November 2015 / December 2015 / January 2016 / February 2016 / March 2016 / April 2016 / May 2016 / June 2016 / July 2016 / August 2016 / September 2016 / October 2016 / November 2016 / December 2016 / January 2017 / February 2017 / March 2017 / April 2017 / May 2017 / June 2017 / July 2017 / August 2017 / September 2017 / October 2017 / November 2017 / December 2017 / January 2018 / February 2018 / March 2018 / April 2018 / May 2018 / June 2018 / July 2018 / August 2018 / September 2018 / October 2018 / November 2018 / December 2018 / January 2019 / February 2019 / March 2019 / April 2019 / May 2019 / June 2019 / July 2019 / August 2019 / September 2019 / October 2019 / November 2019 / December 2019 / January 2020 / February 2020 / March 2020 / April 2020 / May 2020 / June 2020 / July 2020 / August 2020 / September 2020 / October 2020 / November 2020 / December 2020 / January 2021 / February 2021 / March 2021 / April 2021 / May 2021 / June 2021 / July 2021 / August 2021 / September 2021 / October 2021 / November 2021 /


Major tags or subjects:

2000 = 1000
Carbon Cult
Carver
Constants and variables
Defensible Cases
Defensible Times
Defensible Spaces
Equipoise
Experiential education
From rights to duties
Grand Blueprint
Metrology
Natural law = Sharia law
Natural law = Soviet law
Shared Lie
Skill-estate
Trinity House
#Whole-of-society

Powered by Blogger