SCHOOL STARTS chapter 187

Like I have said before, I am a very nervous person, but one who does not show those nerves easily. You would think I would remember all the classes I taught and which semester they were taught. I don’t. I dumped those files long ago.

As I write about my days teaching at Canadian Bible College, I know I will mix up years, classes and when certain students attended. None of this is intentional. I was at Canadian Bible College six years and in my mind, all the students I knew were there at the same time. I blame it all on Garry Tollefson. He was with me in Portrait Players five years (four at CBC and one at CTC) and he knew all the Portrait Players, and they knew him. At times that caused me think they all there at the same time. They weren’t.

I was not hired to direct or work with Portrait Players. I knew a drama group had been started the year before and that they had toured. It was student organized and student run. I expected it would continue to be student run. Eugene Neudorf had graduated, but Judy Linnen was still around. I intended to be supportive, but that was it.

I was hired to organize and direct youth conference. I was looking forward to that. At the time it was still an extra circular activity, but by the following year I had managed to move it to a two semester to a credit class. Giving leadership in that program was hard work and very time consuming for all the students. There was a lot to learn in just the process, let alone the creativity — loved that part.

I recall that the first class I walked into was “Introduction to Christian Education.” The first year of teaching is a challenge for any new teacher. I had never taught before and had no idea how I was going to fill sixteen hours a week with 55 minutes of stuff. I had a week to prepare a forty-minute sermon and struggled with that. The most helpful advice I got from my mentor, Norm Wakefield, was to remember that every assignment I handed out would came back to me in multiplied form. When teaching several classes he said, “Do not make all the assignments from all classes due on the same day or you will collapse under the weight of grading papers. Plan in such a way as you can get assignments back within seven days. Remember spacing”

That was what I did. I staggered assignments from class to class. No two classes had written papers due back at the same time. I planned for time to read every paper. Now, if only all the students could write, I would have enjoyed it more.

I was nervous on day one, class one and decided I would just introduce myself to the class and try to get to know them a bit. Naturally the first task is learning names and I lived in fear of my struggle to pronounce some strange names, at least strange to me. Some names were a terrible challenge.  One of the toughest was the Chinese name “Ng.” When I saw that I really didn’t know what to do. There were no vowels. How do you pronounce a name without vowels? The student tried to explain it to me in class and I still could not understand. I asked him to see me after class. He did and worked with me a few minutes. I got it when I finally figured out it was just a sound. At least, that is how I grasp the concept.

I then went over the syllabus. I hated teachers who wanted to trick me in exams by asking the most obscure, insignificant facts they could find just so those questions would be missed buy most. I really wanted to test fundamental knowledge. The things I believed were basic and important would be covered. I hoped they would see it the same way. If everyone got an “A” so be it. Of course, that never happened.

I somehow got through the first day and went home with a loaded briefcase to prepare for the next day. That seemed to happen almost every night for the first year. Della wasn’t so sure that me being a teacher was going to be the best thing for our Marriage. Frankly, neither was I. I seemed to have little time for the family.