A lesson for life

I subscribe to a daily e-mail news letter called Daily Challenge. Everyday a reminder to better myself and the world around me arrives in my inbox. Things like "smile at 3 people today", "pick up a piece of litter", "set an alarm to remind you to march in place for 1 minute..." may sound simple and maybe a little silly (what if you're waiting in line at Starbucks when that reminder to march sounds?) but it's surprising what completing an easy little task can do for your mood when you know it's bettering your life even in the simplest way. Also, I'm the sort of person who adds tasks I've already done to my to-do list just so I can cross them off, so getting to check that little "done" box is one of my favorite things. Today the challenge was, "Recall your favorite subject in high school, and list 3 reasons why you liked it." For me that subject was AP Psychology. Now, I know I've already written about psychology, so this may not come as a surprise, but when I thought about the top reasons I loved it so much none of them were subject matter.

The very top reason was my teacher. She was intelligent, funny, a little crazy, but most of all she was easy to relate to. She let her students into her life and get to know her, which isn't something many teachers do. Her antics (she got up on her desk the first day of class and sang "Jesse's Girl" by Rick Springfield to prove to us how much she loved him) made going to class interesting. She always came up with tricky ways to teach us, so that most of the time we didn't even realize we were learning something.
One way she earned our respect was that she treated us as responsible (almost)adults. She expected us to do our best, gave us help when we needed it, and was interested in our lives outside of the classroom. She knew about the things high-schoolers do outside of school (the phrase "I didn't hear that" came out of her mouth frequently) but didn't judge, and so gained our trust. It's been six years since my senior year of high-school but I'm still friends with my teacher on Facebook. I frequently check out her page to see what she's up to, as do many of her former students (as evidenced by the numerous comments on her wall). Although I may have forgotten some of the academic lessons learned in her class I'll always remember how an open-mind, a respectful attitude, and a little bit of understanding can get you a long way.

And just incase you're wondering, the other two reasons this was my favorite class weren't nearly as lofty: it was the last class of the day, and my closest friends sat next to me.

What would you write about your favorite high-school class? How about your favorite teacher?