I loved school.  Seriously.  I am probably one of the .01% of people who has never hated school.  There wasn’t a time (READ: Middle School) that I didn’t enjoy the classes I was in, the teachers I had, and the kids I hung around.   Yes, there were some bad teachers, classes, and kids thrown in there, but not to the extent that they ruined my school experience.  I think one of the reasons I was fortunate in this realm is because I was placed early-on with a group of kids just like me: NERDS.

You see, in our town, they didn’t pull out gifted students for a period each week, or a time each day.  They separated them into their own classroom, with their own teachers.  We were free to be ourselves – geeky and awkward and, ultimately, nerdy.  A characteristic that can normally be used against you, we were all bonded together by our interest in learning.  It was ok to be excited about the science experiment or completely engrossed in the novel we were studying.  Sure, there was a social hierarchy within the gifted kids – even smart kids can be cool – but it felt like a much narrower spectrum.  Whatever we might find to tease or bully each other about, and there was plenty, there was a sense of comraderie within the program.  And because they kept us together we had the same people in our classes, year after year.  The further along I went in school the smaller my class of nerds became, and the tighter our bond.

One thing I noticed about being in a separate program is that the classroom itself felt different.  The classes I had outside of gifted were often choatic and unorganized.  Granted, these were all non-core classes (art, photography, geography, gym), but the ability of the teacher to control the classroom seemed to weaken when dealing with a group of randomly placed students.  There are too many competing needs, too many varied interests. And this wasn’t specific to us being gifted at all.  When you have a group that all share the same desire and goal, I think it’s easier to teach to them.  My core classes were quieter, more focused.  You had students that acted out, but it wasn’t the norm and the teachers were able to contain them.  The point being, I really enjoyed school because the students and teachers allowed us to have amazing classes.

One class I loved, one teacher I loved, was in 6th grade.  We didn’t have different teachers for every single class back then; I had a homeroom teacher that I spent a majority of my day with.  I think a lot of of favorite teachers occur early in school because these are the people we spent the entire day with, our surrogate moms.

And mine was fantastic.  She created a warm and inviting atmosphere for learning and living.  I loved being in her classroom each and every day.  Because, to be honest, it was better than being at home.  When you have a less than ideal home life – parents fighing, not much interaction within the family – you look for a connection elsewhere.  And I found that in Mrs. Staudt’s class.  I remember liking her instantly, and forming a close bond with her over the school year.

It was the first year of middle school, being at the bottom of the student totem pole.  A critical period in a student’s life.  That was the year I read Watership Down  and created a replica of the train from Murder on the Orient Express. That was the year we went on a field trip to “Medieval Times” and a classmate passed out next to the blacksmith 🙂

We wrote in journals everyday.  I kept all of mine.  It was a great way to release some of the tensions from home and get feedback through a safe venue.  Now, middle school is an awkward time for most of us, me included, so having a great teacher during this period is pretty damn important.  I’m so grateful for what she gave me.

The last time I saw Mrs. Staudt was the last day of 8th grade.  I went around one last time to visit some of my favorite teachers, and I remembered thinking about how much I was goin to miss her.  I haven’t seen or talked to her since.

So you can imagine my excitement today when a friend posted a drawing he made for Mrs. Staudt when he was in 6th grade – she kept that drawing for the last 19 years and recently shared this with him after becoming friends on Facebook.

She’s on Facebook!!

Now I know it’s not a big deal nowadays for teachers to be on FB – a lot of teachers friend their students as soon as they leave their class (and some while they are IN their class, which is another post for another time).  However, BACK IN THE DAY we didn’t have such technology. So you could go years without communicating with adults from your past, like a favorite teacher.  They become frozen in time and you contineue to imagine them as they were, teaching away in a little classroom, never aging a bit.

It was completely surreal to see Mrs. Staudt on FB, aged to current day.  No longer tied in my mind to the early 90s (think: floral dresses!) and confined to a classroom.   She’s now retired after 30 years of teaching, and her first grandson was born a few months ago.

She had a life outside of school!  Mind blown!  Well, mind blown when we were younger; in our mind, teachers live at school and are not allowed into the general population.  Seeing them in public was always strange.  Always awkward.  I can’t imagine being friends with them back then – seeing post of their families, their vacations, videos of penguins they reccommend we watch.  It was a different time, pre-social media.  I’m not saying it was better or worse – it was both – just different.

I am glad that the technology now exists as I have really enjoyed being back in touch with several of my former teachers.  It’s been fun catching up with them and finding out what they’ve been doing in their lives, outside of school.   It also gives me the opportunity to let them know how they influenced and changed my life, in such positive ways.  Were in not for the encouragement and support of exceptional teachers, I’d be a different person today.  Both mentally and emotionally.  I guess that’s why I’ve always been drawn to the education field in my career choices; they gave me something that is invaluable and I hope to one day pay it forward the young people I work with.  Nerds and jocks alike 😉

One final thing on Nerds.  My Dad and I use that term for certain contestants on Jeopardy!, but in the opposite of how I’ve been using it in this post.  It’s really his term, he uses “nerd” when describing really annoying smart people – you know who I’m talking about, Jeopardy! watchers.  They just possess this quality of being annoyingly nerdy.   It’s the way the talk, the things they say, the manner in which they give their answers on the show.  They just ooze nerdiness.  And when my Dad and I see them on the show, we jump to tag them first.  NERD!  The fastest and easiest way to spot the nerds is during the “get to know you” segement during the show.  This is when contestants feel free to wave their freak/geek flags.  And that’s where you see the spectrum of Nerd come out.  There are the cool nerds – the rocket scientist – and there the weird nerds- the biologist whose specializes in algae – and the boring nerds – the CPA.  Sorry CPAs 🙂  And then there are the NERDS Dad is talking about.  They can be any profession, any age, any race.  They just gotta be aggravatingly nerdy.  It’s sorta like our version of a drinking game.

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One of my favorite nerds is Toofer from 30 Rock. His nerdom was revealed to us in the very first episode.

Toufer: [Complaining to Liz] Surely our massive conglomerate parent company could spring for a samovar of coffee.
Frank: Yeah, or, like, a big coffee dispenser!
Toufer: [Condescendingly] That’s what a samovar is.
Frank: Are there other black nerds, or is it just you and Urkel?