My boss sent me to the Post Office yesterday to get four rolls of stamps. Rolls of stamps have always, ever since 8th grade, reminded me of what a selfish jerk Thaddeus Flesch is (he says, grinning good-naturedly). We were walking into the M Company dorm when he spied a roll of stamps on the ground.
Stamps are to cadets as cigarettes are to prison inmates. And Flesch just found, like, 100 or whatever comes in a roll.
Do you know how many he shared with me? None, that’s how many. And I think of that every time I even hear the term “roll of stamps.”
I think he even gave some to Forbes-Watkins which was like twisting the knife. Jerk.
I have had recurring dreams about Howe Military School for over 20 years. Sometimes they include real people, often the dream only takes place there. For some reason, many of these dreams involve me returning to school there now at my present age.
I often theorize what Howe represents in these dreams. An idealized place? Time? A concept or state of being? A spiritual state? An idealized version of myself I want to return to?
The night before last, I dreamed that Glenn Beck was giving the commencement address. At one point, I was driving in a car with him.
The dreams are always very cool and often fantastical like tales written by Robert E. Howard or J.K. Rowling.
I believe it was my senior year when a bunch of us drove to Stratford, Ontario for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. I saw two or three plays – Man for All Seasons (which still affects me to this day) and an awful, modernized version of, I think, Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. What made this particular performance interesting (aside from its suckiness) was a friend of mine from metro Detroit was attending the same performance with her schoolmates. I scanned every face in every crowd that day but couldn’t find her.
Stratford is, it goes without saying, a magical place. I promised myself that one day I would return and buy a bust of Shakespeare I coveted. I also remember being in a record store and buying a couple Little Richard cassette’s and Blah Blah Blah, the new record by Iggy Pop.
We all stayed in a nursing school dorm (I don’t know what brilliant school administrator thought, “Let’s put a bunch of horny teenage boys in the nursing school dorm” but … oh, wait, “school administrator” and “brilliant” are probably contradicting terms) and my roomie was Andrew Smith which was great because he was pretty much the only member of my senior class that I could stand (that I knew – I did not speak a word to Stephen Bates until our 20th reunion).
One of my coolest memories was the evening we arrived back on campus from Christmas break. I was hanging out in Andy’s room listening to a great group called Mannheim Steamroller. Andy was a real fan – he had several albums and this was before, I believe, they had their megahit with “Deck the Halls.” Andy had brought me an Aboriginal coat of arms… an animal skin shield with two crossed spears. Very cool.
I am ashamed of my self-censorship. I made some of my most popular posts “private” so any prospective employers wouldn’t find any evidence that I’ve ever been less than perfect my entire life.
And, while thinking of Study Hall, I thought of two particular events I’ve always wanted to write about but haven’t because I was scared of prospective parents thinking they shouldn’t send their kids to Howe. I wouldn’t want anyone to think Howe and its students were less than perfect now or in the past.
Some buildings have a soul – or something like it. Even amongst churches … some feel sacred and holy and others do not … even among Catholic churches …
The Academic Building most definitely has a feeling like no other building and it is still there whenever I return. Superintendents and student bodies may change but that building … it remembers … it remembers a lot.
Every memory from Howe is still so vivid … I can remember how every room felt and smelled. The Study Hall in particular has many, many memories. I was a very young Christian … barely a few months old and reading this new magazine I’d discovered called The Plain Truth … and some other magazine from The Church of God. I was learning all about how the Catholic Church was the whore of Babylon and such. Jack Chick was another of my teachers. I hadn’t “met” Mr. Chick yet, but was introduced to Herbert Armstrong and The Church of God by my Spanish teacher. This same guy wouldn’t go to any services on campus and explained simply by saying, “I’m not Episcopalian .” He would, however answer any questions I had – even during class – about things like “Is my Social Security number the Mark of the Beast?”
I can remember looking forward to each new issue so I could learn what the headlines meant in the whole prophecy scheme of things. That’s one of my study hall memories. Leaning over one of those magazines at any given time.
The Teacher’s Lounge is becoming more mysterious. My wife says all teachers do in the teacher’s lounge is complain about students and their jobs. She says most public school employees are bitter, bitchy burnouts.
I don’t think I ever saw anyone in the teacher’s lounge at Howe. Odd. I do know there was a pop machine in it.
Had I been in JROTC one more year (8th grade doesn’t count) I’d have gotten an extra stripe in the Air Force. What really irritates me is I was in JROTC 24 hours a day. I got more of it in a day than kids in public school kids got all year and yet THEY would get an extra stripe ahead of me. But, enough whining. What they got doesn’t compare to the nurturing and blessings I got from Howe.
I’m spending most of my “free” time studying for the Middle Grades Integrated Curriculum exam. I watch Mr. Holland’s Opus while I do for inspiration and motivation. I have to take at least three exams:
The General Knowledge Test (English, Reading, Math, and an essay)
The Professional Education Test (My impression is that it is education theory, etc.)
Subject Matter (the subject[s] you want to teach)
I’ll take the MGIC at first … the exams are all $25 and you have to pay $75 per subject you want to be certified in so just to apply I have to pay $75 just to apply, then I have to take – and pay for – the exams. So if I want to apply to teach the MGIC subjects and high school English, that’s $150. Fortunately, I can just pay $75 to apply for MGIC certification, then in another pay period actually take the exam for $25 … and so on and spread out the payments …
HOLY CRAP! Is that Terrence Howard?! It is! Wow…
Sorry …
There are some study guides. I’m on the waiting list at the library and I’ve sat in the local super book store to read some. The English exam study guide makes me sick. But … I’ve decided I wasted 20 years of my life because I was unwilling to jump through hoops to teach. Now … I’ll jump through any hoop. Twice. Wearing a silly costume. Whatever it takes.
I’m watching Mr. Holland’s Opus for the 671st time – in particular, the scene where Mr. Holland is trying to teach his new marching band how to march. It’s amazing how difficult to teach and learn something as simple as walking can be. And that’s all marching is – walking with other other people. “Left, right, left, right …” and so on.
I remember learning to march and do things like “right face” or “column right.” I remember having to teach it a couple years later.
I couldn’t wait until the new semester started so I could begin teaching my class(es) at Monroe County Community College and subbing on the alternate days. My plans were dealt a blow when AT&T hired me for a two-year temp gig at $25/hour. It’s hard to sell your spouse and mother of your children on your low-paying dreams when an offer like that comes around. I was sure I’d figure something out, however. Perhaps I could find a full time job working midnights that would give us health benefits and I could still teach during the day … something!
All of these plans, dreams, and job searches were made possible by sudden unemployment, by the way – you need to know that for this next part. My wife’s grandfather gave us a house. In Florida. Florida is far away from any county in Michigan – even Monroe County. AT&T didn’t care as much about me leaving as the Dean of Students who felt I’d conned him somehow. I felt horrible even before his sour email. F
On the upside, I thought, Florida is very eager to get teachers… far moreso than Michigan. Education majors in Michigan quickly leave the state because Michigan continually fires teachers for lack of a budget. Florida is one of the states who take advantage of this by sending recruiters to Michigan.
I spent what seemed like weeks or months in the online application process sending transcripts, getting letters of recommendation, blah blah … and finally all I needed to do was get fingerprinted upon my arrival in Florida! They do fingerprinting once a week.
When I arrived in Florida, both my children had hand, foot, paw and claw in mouth disease or some such nastiness. So I spent the first week at home with them while Nikki worked at her brand new job (they came down a few weeks ahead of me). I missed the fingerprinting date my first week in Florida and by the time the next week rolled around, I’d found a job at Cruisin’ Style Magazine which – even before the three raises I’ve earned already – paid more than substitute teaching so my wife, again, convinced me that teaching would just have to wait …
In the late months of 2007, I applied to Monroe County Community College for an Adjunct Professor position teaching Graphic Design. I taught for New Horizons and other agencies for just over four years teaching mostly Adobe and Macromedia products so this would be a no-brainer.
I interviewed with the Dean of Students and the senior instructor of that department. The down-side of this position would be it was only one class, perhaps two, and during the day. So it’s not like I could hold down a gainful full-time job during the day and teach in the evening. However, I was all oriented and fingerprinted to substitute teach in local public schools and could do that on the three days I wasn’t driving an hour one-way to teach my one class. I assured the Dean that I would work three fast food jobs around the clock for the opportunity to teach. “That’s how much this means to you?” he asked. Yes, I assured him I’d do anything to teach. So he turned down several other applicants and hired me. I was ecstatic.
Most of my adult life, I have wanted nothing more than to teach high school English. Over time, I’ve also gotten an itch to teach History and, lately, I’ve really wanted to teach science or even math. There are many reasons I didn’t go to school for Education and as time went on I added “I’m too old” to those reasons. I actually thought to myself I had to be young and cool to be an effective teacher, somehow forgetting that Pagin taught for over 50 years … 60+ I think. Colville was equally “old” when he taught me English and Latin. Recently, as I’ve been actively pursuing my teaching certification at the ripe old age of 38, I’ve been thinking that as long as I’m teaching by the time I’m 40, I can feel good about it. But still, I think, I’ll never be able to return to Howe and teach – and that is the ideal ultimate dream for me.
Kevin Beuret, my friend and mentor who taught me English in 1985 at the Howe Military School summer camp just accepted a job at Howe Military School proper at the age of 63. My hope is now that it will only take me 20+ years to prove myself as a good enough teacher that Howe might hire me at 63. I would be happy with that. The biblical patriarchs were much older than that before they did anything significant with their lives which were, up until then, filled with failure and stupidity (much like my own).
Long before there was a Dead Poets Society or Harry Potter books, there was a tale of a teacher returning to his alma mater where he would teach a group of students that most had written off. They were somewhat of a special ed class. Much like the “Double D’s” (Dumb as dogs–t) group in the great teacher film Renaissance Man. This teacher was, himself, a part of this “lost cause” group and returned to be the father-figure and mentor they needed as much as he did. I hum the theme song to myself and daydream of a day I can do the same.
This song always chokes me up and makes me all misty eyed because it’s everything teaching would be to me.
In a previous post, I wrote about my role in A Comedy of Errors my junior year and how we had to import female students from other schools for the female roles. Now that I think of it, if we really wanted to be Elizabethan about it, we should have just had male cadets dress up like girls. That would be a most interesting debate for the drama coach to have with the administration!
I imagine it will be much easier to get students to participate in theater now that there are girl cadets. Not only because I think girls might be more interested than your typical teenage boy but because teenage boys tend to be interested in participating in activities teenage girls are interested in. Or, at least, the teenage girls can be used as an excuse to allow themselves to profess a legitimate interest in those activities.
The next semester the director chose to do The Odd Couple based solely around me which was quite flattering. The interim superintendent, Father Ghallager, wanted to do Dracula for the same reason which was also pretty cool). As much as I wanted to do theater, I had to choose the Track team instead. I’m pretty sure the reason was I would have missed track meets because of rehearsal which would mean
and had to do intramural sports instead of being on a team which, though still not my preferred way to spend all that time, was infinitely better than the hell that this pseudo-gym class would have been. It’s so odd that they don’t allow push-ups as punishment now and – when I was there – a daily morning calisthenics program was canceled when kids complained to their parents who then complained to the school that their delicate little darlings were enduring such torture … and yet … they have this hellish intramural business.
Neither play had any budget, but The Odd Couple did have a set which was a vast improvement over A Comedy of Errors which didn’t have any. On my last visit to Howe, I looked dreamily around Bouton Auditorium wishing I could donate thousands to give them a state of the art lighting and sound system. Yes, I’ll add that do my list of things I’ll do when I donate my other millions of dollars.
All of this is on my mind because I’m very, very excited about the new ESL master who will also be involved in Howe’s drama programs – the legendary Kevin Beuret.
