My free association of things past led me to recall some 25 years ago, meeting the wonderful Marva Collins, the Chicago teacher of renown, who never gave up on her kids when she taught them, and because she did believe in them, she got them to achieve many good things.
Fresh in my mind are all the occurances in spending a little time with her. Her groupies were clamoring onto her, and she was polite, yet well as a little dismissive of their attentions. I guess that she was not fond of adulation. Not being a groupie, she actually gravitated to me at the conference for gifted education. And at the time Marva and I were fellow smokers, so she wanted a cigarette in the worst way, but she had somehow run out of smokes. So there we were, sharing a common ashtray smoking cigarettes out of my pack, solving all the world's problems in the classroom together. It was wonderful that she spoke to me as an equal and a peer. She even invited me to apply to teach in her school in Chicago. I was flattered, but knowing her dislike of fawning appreciation, I played it pretty cool. One thing I do recall was that I had a modicum of discouragement in how I was doing in the classroom, and I remember that her optimism was indefatigable, saying that every problem has a solution, if we seek for it. She showed me how to not to accept defeat.
It was a very good time in my past.
I share this, because in my life I have ruminated endlessly over things I had done wrong, wallowing in shame that has become toxic. It is pretty refreshing that I can think back on things that are pleasant and restorative to recall.
