A Letter to Mrs. Heurlin for Teacher Appreciation Day
Taking a cue from jbknowles , this goes out to one of the teachers who changed my life.
Dear Mrs. Heurlin,
I don't know what brought you to the wilds of northern Vermont--I suspect it was some back-to-the-landian impulse that may have had more to do with your husband than with yourself, but however you got there, I'm so glad you did. You came in with your Brandeis-expectations and you made us do more than we had ever needed to before.
That production of Camelot, with Kip and Deb and Kurt playing Arthur and Guinevere and Lancelot was amazing. We worked our butts off--to this day, I can't smell nail polish remover without remembering the acetone fumes as we dipped the magic cloth and transformed it into armor. And the moment when the chair broke under Michael M. (Pellinore) and he stayed in character and quipped something about the quality of Arthur's furniture. We did so many shows, so many late nights, that for the first and only time I fell asleep in class (Geometry, which I actually liked). You taught me about dedication, you taught me that doing something worthwhile wasn't for someone who lived in the city, that it was for anyone.
And then, when I got to British Lit, you taught me how to read--not for plot and character, which I had been reading for since First Grade and Little Bear, but for language. I still remember how you went over Milton's Paradise Lost with me, line by line, showing me all the references, talking about symbols. That's when I started to understand that books were not only a way to escape from the world, but a way to capture the world. Honestly, if you hadn't been the Lit. teacher you were, I think I would have flunked out of college, or dropped out at the very least, because I was woefully unprepared for all of my classes except the Lit. ones. Your teaching got me through, until I figured out how to actually study and finally found my own wings.
Thanks, Mrs. Heurlin, wherever you are. Just so you know, I'm now trying to capture the world.
Kathy Quimby