The following post was inspired by the book Close Encounters of the Third Grade Kind by Phillip Done. Mr. Done is certainly the type of teacher whom some of his students will never forget. We can all scan through the list of our grade school teachers and pick the one who made the greatest impression on our young selves. For me, it's a teacher who once invited our entire fourth grade class over for a swim in her condominium pool!
I still have her letters. One is typewritten. A few are handwritten in her familiar cursive. Another is addressed to me in the bold lettering of calligraphy.
She was my fourth grade teacher and when she left our school to get married and move to Honolulu, she and I kept in touch for several years. As Ms. Kirby became Mrs. Izumi, I followed her trail through letters to a world bigger than my own. She wrote to me about her travels to Fiji and Guadalajara and about her life in Hawaii with her new husband, a lawyer.
In her classroom, she brought the world to us. We spent a lot of time talking about different countries. I spent a lot of time with my nose in encyclopedias, turning to the page of the country we were studying, finding the big map (Kenya!) and then tracing its outline onto tracing paper for my book reports. I loved doing those reports. Back in the classroom, the posters would change from Africa to Mexico to Japan. We watched many films about various countries, following the narrator into homes of the world. Our classroom felt like a museum.
When we studied Japan, we listened to Sakura Sakura and nibbled on Japanese treats. For open house, I donned my mother's traditional kimono and performed an odori dance in front of a small crowd. We learned about Girl's Day and Boy's Day.
When we studied North Africa, a classmate's Moroccan born mother brought in traditional fare of her native land and we all got to try it. It was the first time I'd tried cous cous and I was hooked.
Ms. Kirby was cultured and well traveled and she brought her love of world cultures into the classroom where one little fourth grade girl (me) swallowed it up. It quickly became an interest that has stayed with me since.
When she moved, we became pen pals. Rereading her letters to me so many years later, I just want to thank her for taking the time to write. The letters were personal and playful and were always on just the right level for the fifth grade me, and then the sixth grade me, and then the seventh grade me. I think we stopped writing to each other when I hit junior high. Not everyone got along with her; one friend said she was mean. I do know that she played favorites (not, it wasn't me) but still, I came away from the experience of being in her class with a greater curiosity of the world.
Every student should have a Mr. Done in third grade. Every student should have a Ms. Kirby in fourth grade. And no student should ever have a Mr. Sharp for high school physics. That's how school should be.
Original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles. Read my post about Phil Done's first book, 32 Third Graders and One Class Bunny, here.
Photo: Mr. Done reading excerpts of his book.
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