Thursday, May 14, 2009

Mr. Sobrinski says..... Mr. Sobrinski says

Teacher Receives Daily Shoulder Rubs from Student!!

Student Hugs and Adores Teacher!!

...could be scandalous headlines today but when I was in third grade - yikes! back in - 1973!!! - it was a reality that unfortunately kids don't see anymore. Yes, I was the one doing the shoulder rubbing and hugging and adoring. That was then.

This is now: My mom still works at the library in the elementary school and told me that Mr. Sobrinski is retiring. She thought I should write something but it's taken me a while to come up with it since I don't even remember specifics of the lessons from the year in his class - except that I struggled with math - okay, really, what did we need all that for? Now we each carry a calculator all the time on our cell phones to help us figure it all out!

Anyway, while in class and in school in general what did we really learn? What do I remember about the teacher I knew as a fun, young, active, endlessly interesting guy?

I'm sure that if you ask any of Mr. Sobrinski's students what they remember of his class they'd mention reading the Hobbit - I can tell you he introduced us to this book even before it was cool by pop-culture standards.

I remember that he taught us to play chess - now I appreciate the lessons playing the game teaches to young minds.

At the time I guess I must have quoted him a lot since I definitely remember my sister and my Dad razzing me by saying "Mr. Sobrinski says..... Mr. Sobrinski says...".

There's memory still lurking in my brain cells of being out on the playground and after fumbling a ball Mr. S. used the word SUGAR!! instead of cursing and I realize now that he taught by example and whether by coincidence or not, I rarely curse well, I don't know him that well personally and don't know if he would normally curse but I do know that he did the right thing in front of us.


The kids that were kids when I was a kid survived the hazards of life and along the way our lives were touched in numerous ways by people like Mr. Sobrinski. I guess if I'd had the math stuff down and had the details of how many students over many years I'd be able to spout out the hard numbers. Beyond that the reality is that the gifts and lessons we walked away with are beyond count and still growing as we convey them to our own children. So ... exactly how do you calculate that??

1 comment:

Knight said...

wow! that is a heck of a blog post!!