Today is World Teacher’s Day. A great reason to look back at some of the influential people who taught us over the years. One of my all-time favourite teachers was Mr. John Fish. He was our Grade 8 teacher at Agnew H. Johnston elementary school. In addition to that, he was my best friend Tito’s father and was basically my second dad. Mr. Fish was a character! So many catchphrases. “This is a game, and I’m going to win.” and “Word to the wise, watch the eyes!” being just a couple of examples. Every class he had was treated to a rousing rendition of the Langston Hughes poem “Danse Africaine” aka “The Slow Beating of the Tom Toms”. Poor Tito had it tough being the teacher’s son. His dad didn’t want to show favouritism and didn’t. Meanwhile, other kids were always accusing him of doing well because his dad was the teacher. As much as it pains me to give Tito a compliment, he was just smart.
Mrs. Neely was another Agnew favourite. Grade 2 was a fun year with her. “A Little Dab’ll Do Ya” was sung every time we broke out the glue. She was also an awesome wrestling coach. Mr. Butler was such a cool cat and had the unenviable task of taking us to Kingfisher for a couple days in Grade 5. Mr. Woodford was along for the ride and I still get chills thinking about his ghost story about “Bill Greech”. Mr. Bain was our passionate Grade 7 teacher. His intricate system of Detentions and I.O.U.s taught us a lot. Bainer conducted some awesome experiments in class. If you did something well he’d tell you to “Get an I.O.U. up there!” Which you could use to wipe out a D.T. that you’d earned through some sort of nefarious act.
High School was a whole new experience and Churchill had no shortage of legendary teachers. Miss Sewell and Mrs. Perrier anchoring the English department. I learned a lot from those two, for example, the significance of “Duddy Kravitz”. Drama class with Miss Sewell was probably my all-time favourite. That’s where our cult classic film “Dracula” came from. I may or may not have had a nude scene. Nobody can prove that that bottom was mine. Mr. Nuttall was another fave. He and his massive forearms always made science class fun. I’ll never forget when Brendan Potter accidentally smashed Mr. Nuttall’s antique magnets. It was a sad day for Mr. Nuttall and something I think Potter is still feeling guilt about to this day. I was surprised to walk by a “Northern Wilds” magazine earlier this year and spot the man himself on the cover! He’s looking a little forlorn, probably thinking about the magnets. You can’t talk about Churchill without mentioning a few other legends. Mr. Macdonald could teach math to anybody and was a stellar football coach. Mr. Papich, another amazing football coach and maybe the most iconic teacher in Churchill history, “I’m older than dirt and the enemy of fun.” And last, but certainly not least, Dr. Sakamoto. Everybody wanted to be in his gym class. He was a fantastic wrestling coach and a phenomenal athlete. He could do the iron cross and the flag pole! And he bounced up instantly when Cory McEachran ran him over on the broomball rink.
Nowadays, I admire my teacher friends and family. Too many to list but an honourable mention to my sister who works so hard facilitating for her kids, and to Tito, who followed in his father’s footsteps. Word to the wise, students of Tito, watch the eyes.
Who are some of the teachers you remember fondly?