In honor of World Teachers’ Day today, tell us about a teacher who had a positive impact on your life.
I attended a small private school all the way through eighth grade. On average, we had 17 people in my entire grade at any one time and my eighth grade graduating class has five girls including me. I experienced culture shock when I moved on to high school. I moved on to a public school with a freshman class of over 400. Signing up for elective courses with the counselor was a challenge. I didn’t want to take typing and the counselor frowned on that telling me as a girl I needed typing skills for secretary and receptionist jobs. That really wasn’t where I was hoping my career would go. I wanted to take shop and welding and learn to build things. I ended up settling for History of the Western Theater as an intro to the theater track because it sounded better than typing.
Mrs. Tucker was in charge of theater as well as our teacher and what I thought would be a boring class turned out to be an excellent one. Most people in the class were the typical “theater types” and I had a blast with them. Ms. Tucker was a very strong person and I enjoyed the course so much I requested to be accepted into Stagecraft my sophomore year. Two of us were accepted and broke the standards of Stagecraft as it was a junior/senior only course. I really loved Stagecraft as I got to work behind the scenes.
I learned how to apply stage makeup, build sets from wood, Styrofoam and chicken wire. I learned the ins and outs of sound and lighting and got to explore the top of the theater on the cat walks.I had so much fun I joined the local city theater and did sound and lights there too.
Mrs. Tucker expanded my horizons and defended those in her care. She knew us and pushed us and guided us without cramping our teenage style. She was close enough to remain that needed adult and teacher, but gave us enough space to explore and learn on our own that we didn’t feel smothered by her.
The thing I will never, ever forget is what she said to me after I was out of her classes… she told me that I was strong, and that I didn’t “need” a man to make it in life, but it was ok to “want” one. That one thing has stayed with me my entire life and always will. It is hard to find a balance sometimes between being overly dependent on or pushing away our friends and partners. Mrs. Tucker’s wisdom grounds me whenever I need balance. I wonder if she knows that she was helped me become the person I am.
