On the way home today, I was thinking about our local town council. They need to do better. for some reason, I instantly thought of sixth grade.
I had Mr. Kelke. He was a really good teacher. He wasn't overly funny, or mean, or overly anything for that matter. He was fair, and had high expectations. In the spring, the city had a city wide track meet for the grade schools. somehow, I made the 4 x 50 yard dash. I was the starting leg of our foursome. when we went to the track to practice, I tried what I thought was hard. He came up to me after one of our practice runs, and told me to really pop up off the line and go. I thought I had, but I told him I would. Our next practice run, I thought I did better, but Mr. Kelke came up to me after I made my exchange, and told me I need to really pop up and run hard. Now this time I was sure I had run really well, but I said I would try. I concentrated, and tried. after this run however, Mr. Kelke came over to me, and was gentle, but told me that I need to do even better. I cried, but It stirred me to concentrate even harder on our next practice run. I didn't get any feedback after that run, and we all moved on to what ever else we had to do. when the day of the meet came, and it was time for our event, I lined up on the inside lane. We had to stay in our lanes, because it was only 200 yards total. We started out behind everyone else because of the turn. I probably concentrated harder than I ever had on anything up to that point. I can't tell you if I was the fastest one in my leg of the run, because I was concentrating on the run and the exchange (which was flawless, at least from my memory). but after the exchange, I watched the rest of the race. At the beginning of my leg, we were "behind" everyone else, but at the end of the second leg where we hit the straight away, we were about 20 feet in front of all the other teams. Legs two and three didn't let up an inch, and our team totally smashed the other teams. Thanks, Mr. Kelke. I'm sure I met my potential that day.
Who ever is reading this.....go out and do better!
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4 comments:
Dave, I understand you are trying toencourage people. My experience with Mr. kelke is one that he used humiliation to teach. In 5th grade I was unaware that it was considered respectful to take off one's hat when saying the pledge of allegiance.I had on my favorite red and white striped ball hat ,when over the loudspeaker intercom I heard"Miss Alicia Owens will you please take off your hat so the rest of us can say the pledge of allegiance" He could have approached me in private and explained this to me , but he never did ,not even during the day later on. Alicia
Actually, Alicia, according to U.S. Code, only men in civilian dress remove their hats during the pledge. Women and people in uniform, including boy scouts, do not remove their hats (U.S. Code Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 4). So, Mr. Kelke had it wrong anyway.
My experience of Mr. Kelke was always that he was rude, sarcastic, and enjoyed humiliating kids. I remember a day when he humiliated me in from of the entire lunchroom on a day I forgot my sack lunch.
And in David's story too I notice that Mr. Kelke heaped on lots of criticism, bringing David to tears, but David didn't mention that there were any congratulations, any "Atta Boy"s, or "I knew you could do it!"s.
Sometimes kids cling to and identify with disapproving and abusive teachers and caretakers because it is too psychologically devastating to believe that they do not have your best interests at heart. After all, you are at their mercy. Not everyone should be a teacher.
My 2 cents,
Dawn
PS. David, call me!
Are you guys thinking of Kelke or Kessler? Kessler was a jerk. I don't remember tons of criticism from Kelke. I honestly don't remember much of Kelke.
DaveO
P.S. Thanks for reading the blog.
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