By Steve Walker
In 1980-81, I was honored
to teach Senior Government at Memorial
High School in Edgewood School District
Before I began the year, I
was recruited away from reporting for the Westside and Southside Weekly Suns
(part of the Express-News) which now no longer exist since they discontinued
them some years later and incorporated those publications into the main body of
the paper.
I would write about
stories on La Memorial for the Westside Sun and the Principal Joe Arriaga would
come in to our office and submit press releases and ideas for stories to cover
his school. Besides editing press releases I would also go out into the
Southside and Westside to cover activities and events and write feature
articles about personalities I encountered in the neighborhoods.
That caught Arriaga’s
attention and he asked me to leave the Suns and come to La Memorial and teach
since I had a number of years of experience in the classroom.
The only opening he had
available at the time was a government class that was losing the teacher who
was being promoted to an administrative position within the district. The deal
was that I would finish the school year as the Senior Government Teacher with
one Freshman History Class and then the following year I would switch to teach
English and Journalism since that particular teacher was retiring at the end of
the year.
The good news was I took
four years of History classes in high school and some classes in College which
I enjoyed very much although it wasn’t my teaching field.
I really enjoyed teaching
government that year, although the bad news was I followed a very popular
teacher. Rule of thumb in teaching is if you are taking over for another
teacher mid semester you want to follow one that is not the most popular or the
most well-liked, which in turn can make you look good. Unfortunately I followed
the most popular teacher in the school who at one time been named the school’s
“Teacher of the Year.”
What happens is when you
institute your rules and ways of doing things, the students tend to say things
like, “That’s not the way Mr. Rodriguez (not real name) does it or we don’t do
that.” It is hard to overcome, but not impossible.
That is when you get really creative. I
decided that one way to get the students attention was to bring in an
occasional guest speaker so they wouldn’t have to listen to me do all the
talking. That worked well.
One time I had a police
officer come to my class to talk about students becoming interested in going
into police work as a career and what it all entailed. I had not informed them
beforehand the guest speaker would be a police officer so they didn’t know who
was coming. What they also didn’t know was I had talked to the officer before
hand and we played out a little scenario. His walking into the classroom
obviously got their attention. When he entered he asked me if I was Mr. Walker.
When I said “yes” he told me to turn around put my hands behind my back and
then proceeded to cuff me.
The stunned looks on my
student’s faces told the story. Once they realized it was only a stunt, everyone
had a good laugh and he proceeded to inform them how they could become a
policeman.
The students enjoyed the
class despite my prank and asked lots of questions of the officer. I have
actually run into a couple of those students over the years who vividly remember
that day. One said jokingly that was the only time he ever saw my hands behind
my back. I talk with my hands!
Anyway, as always, what I
write is “Just a Thought.”
Steve Walker is a Vietnam
Veteran and former Justice of the Peace and Journalist.
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