This world is full of many different teaching styles, from the free-flowing agenda of the French education system to the strict rules of Iran and Afghanistan. We all have also been exposed to different personal teaching styles from our teachers growing up. When I was in high school, I was definitely not closed off from these styles as I was exposed to the good, the bad, and the outright ugly. Nowhere could you find both sides of the teaching spectrum as you did in the North Kitsap High School math program. There, we find two teachers of the same subject but of completely different teaching styles, Mr. Olson and Mr. D.
In my freshman year at NKHS, I had a teacher by the name of... Let's just call him Mr. D. Mr. D was a short, chubby, awkward man, and I could tell the second I walked in that he wasn't meant to be standing in front of this class, he was meant to be in it. I don't think a day passed where he finished a single sentence about algebra. He would have a problem on the board, give us 10 minutes to solve it, and then he would solve it for us, not explaining how to do it, though. Most of the period was spent discussing the Huskies or his days in the navy, never actually about math. He would give us homework, but never check it or grade it. I don't think that anyone passed that class with higher than a B. However, at the end-of-the-year awards assembly, he gave me the award for best math student in his class.
There was one instance that stood out about Mr. D. I remember that one day, we had just finished the 1st unit and everyone in the class was having enormous troubles with understanding the work. Mr. D spent the entire class time talking about the huskies game from the day before. This was back when NKHS had a block schedule, and he spent the entire 2 hour block talking about something that was completely irrelevant to the class. He discussed the final score of the game, all of the plays, even did a reenactment of one of the touchdowns. Not one minute was spent on algebra that day. The worst part, our unit test that was worth 50% of our quarter grade, was the next day.
There was one instance that stood out about Mr. D. I remember that one day, we had just finished the 1st unit and everyone in the class was having enormous troubles with understanding the work. Mr. D spent the entire class time talking about the huskies game from the day before. This was back when NKHS had a block schedule, and he spent the entire 2 hour block talking about something that was completely irrelevant to the class. He discussed the final score of the game, all of the plays, even did a reenactment of one of the touchdowns. Not one minute was spent on algebra that day. The worst part, our unit test that was worth 50% of our quarter grade, was the next day.
Being new to high school, let's just say that that wasn't necessarily the greatest way to start off my high school career. However, everything turned around the next year. In my sophomore year I took Geometry, taught by a man that as might as well have been God. Seriously, it was like being shown how to complete a proof by Morgan Freeman. His name was Mr. Olson, and he changed my view on education forever. Every day, my friend and I would walk into class and sit in our seats up at the front, and the first sentence he said would always blow your mind, such as "Pi is the meaning of life." At this point, you're thrown off, does he mean apple pie, or pi the number? And how could it be the meaning of life? He would then begin to explode your brain with endless knowledge and information in any way possible. He'd show you the math, tell you how it works, how it applies to the universe, how you can use it yourself, and by the end of the class you would walk out of that room truly believing that the meaning of life is Pi.
I owe my high school career to Mr. Olson, because he made me want to learn again. One day you would walk in and he'd have some crazy contraption with a bunch of tubes and metal rods coming out of it and you'd have no idea what it was. He'd then go to show you how it relates to your life and mathematics and plug it in and small bolts of electricity would start dancing in between the rods. The next day he'd show you a clip from a Mel Gibson movie where he, Mel Gibson, describes a math theorem that relates to what we had been learning in class, and then Mr. Olson would go on to completely disprove everything that Mel Gibson says like it was Mystery Science Theater 3000. You would walk away actually remembering what you learned that day so when Mr. Olson handed you the unit test, you not only remembered all the material, you understood it, and loved it.
I owe my high school career to Mr. Olson, because he made me want to learn again. One day you would walk in and he'd have some crazy contraption with a bunch of tubes and metal rods coming out of it and you'd have no idea what it was. He'd then go to show you how it relates to your life and mathematics and plug it in and small bolts of electricity would start dancing in between the rods. The next day he'd show you a clip from a Mel Gibson movie where he, Mel Gibson, describes a math theorem that relates to what we had been learning in class, and then Mr. Olson would go on to completely disprove everything that Mel Gibson says like it was Mystery Science Theater 3000. You would walk away actually remembering what you learned that day so when Mr. Olson handed you the unit test, you not only remembered all the material, you understood it, and loved it.
The most important thing a teacher can do is get the student to WANT to learn. If that barrier isn't broken, it's not going to happen. Mr. D simply could not break it, but Mr. Olson shattered it into oblivion. Class with Mr. D was hell. I was literally scared that his eyebrows would jump off his face and turn out to be cockroaches and crawl all over my work! That is, if he ever leaned over my paper to look at it, which he didn't. In fact, Mr. D assigned homework every single night and only ever gave anyone credit once the entire year. Eventually the students just stopped caring, but nothing changed once they did.
Mr. D destroyed my idea of math and education, and Mr. Olson not only rebuilt it but fortified it. Unfortunately, Mr. Olson moved to Ecuador to teach at a private school and Mr. D took over as head of the math department. In fact, when I heard that, I ran home screaming in sheer horror! Okay, it wasn't that bad, but I still can't help but feel pain for those students and disappointment in the administration.
Mr. Olson's teaching styles wasn't complex or hard to do, he just cared about the students. He wanted to see them challenge themselves and he loved to learn. He was much like Mr. Escalante from Stand and Deliver, whereas he was willing to drop anything and help the students because he knew it was his duty.
Mr. Olson's teaching styles wasn't complex or hard to do, he just cared about the students. He wanted to see them challenge themselves and he loved to learn. He was much like Mr. Escalante from Stand and Deliver, whereas he was willing to drop anything and help the students because he knew it was his duty.
All I can think of now is how sad it is that all those kids behind me now have to be taught by Mr. D and will never see the potential that education has. NKHS now has one of the lowest ratings a public high school can have. The administrator's blame the students for not having the motivation to learn and prosper, but what do you expect when you're being taught absolutely nothing by a chubby, balding, smelly man all day? And it wasn't only Mr. D, they're were countless teachers at North Kitsap High School that were the same way. Unresponsive, disrespectful, and uncaring. These are not the traits of a good teacher.
Mr. Olson respected the math, respected the school, respected himself, and most of all respected the students. Mr. D had none of those traits. A good teacher should be informative, yet interesting. Disciplinary, yet respectful. A good teacher truly cares about the growth of the student, like Mr. Olson did. If I hadn't been placed into Mr. Olson's class after I took Mr. D's class, I would be much worse of a student right now. I owe my education to Mr. Olson; he is a teacher that I will never forget.
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