Qualities of a Good Teacher
(Memories of Mrs.Smith) By. Macho Marrufo
I was sitting on a desk way in the back of my 8th grade English class sketching a picture of Eddie Iron Maiden on my folder when all of a sudden I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder. It was Mrs. Smith, my English teacher...
“This is English class, not art classes so please put that drawing away and focus on your English.” She said in a stern yet respectful tone.
I obeyed her since she was the only teacher I had ever I truly respected. I did not fear suspension; after all I had already been suspended by other teachers several times before. What I feared most was disappointing this great teacher who I sensed truly cared about me.
Mrs. Smith always treated me and every other student like human beings. When she spoke to her students she looked us in the eye as if we were her equals. Don’t get me wrong, Mrs. Smith wasn’t a push over, she just knew how to get along with others and put people at ease. She was unlike certain teachers who were uptight dictators who acted like a kid’s worse enemy.
There were 2 things Mrs. Smith wouldn’t tolerate.
One was flakes. If you gave a promise, you kept the promise and I still remember Mrs. Smith saying "people without a word are worthless."
Second was tattle tales. She couldn’t stand that. I remember a boy in our class once tattled on me to Mrs. Smith. Even though she wasn't happy about what I had done, I could see the disgust in her face as she told the informant how tattling was just as disgraceful as gossip.
I actually looked forward in learning English in Mrs. Smith’s class. I remember another time when I thought it would be cool to take a quick drag from a cigarette while in her class. My young brain actually thought Mrs. Smith wouldn’t smell the smoke. Well I was caught immediately and Mrs. Smith did what most teachers would have never done. She took the cigarette away from me but instead of escorting me to the office where I’d definitely be suspended from school; she quickly walked to the library and brought back a medical encyclopedia with several gruesome pictures of lung and oral cancer.
It took Mrs. Smith a little more than 5 minutes to point out to me and the rest of the class just how unhealthy smoking was. She then asked the girls in the class if they’d ever kiss a guy who had the disgusting mouth and lungs featured on the photos. The girls cringed and said no way! Then Mrs. Smith asked every student in the class to approach my desk and beg that I never pick up another cigarette again. It felt good to see the true concern in my class mate’s eyes as they asked me to please stop smoking. I never picked up a cigarette again.
Then there was the time two boys in my class almost got into a fist fight. Mrs. Smith jumped up and ordered them to stop with one word. They quickly obeyed her, not because they feared her, but because they respected her and feared disappointing her. I was positive that she would escort them to the principal’s office where they’d be expelled for the rest of the year. But she didn’t do that. Instead she asked them why they were about to fight. They both explained that it was over a rude comment one of the other boys had made.
Mrs. Smith politely explained to the boys that they had 2 choices; One, they could apologize to each other and shake hands, or Two, continue fighting like idiots and get expelled from school over something as stupid as a comment. The boys shook hands and even hugged. We all hugged in the last day of Mrs. Smith’s English class. We felt as if we were losing our own mother and best friend.
Now that I think back about Mrs. Smith, I now understand just how rare of a teacher she was. She was an unconventional thinker who had a heart so kind and too kind of a person to ever give up on her students by tossing them into the principles office. Well yesterday as I was reading the newspaper I came across a picture of Mrs. Smith in the obituary page.
She passed away at the age of 72 yrs old.
