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TELL US ABOUT A TEACHER WHO HAD A REAL IMPACT ON YOUR LIFE, EITHER FOR THE BETTER OR THE WORSE. HOW IS YOUR LIFE DIFFERENT TODAY BECAUSE OF HIM OR HER.
Ms. Kent taught seventh grade earth science at Meadow Hill Middle School.
Of all the teachers I’ve had she’s one of the few who’s name I even remember. I moved a lot in elementary school. Most of those years are a blur of tears and moving boxes, I remember very little. I vaguely remember where I lived at what age, the name’s of my teacher’s and their impact are just lost details.
Ms. Kent had messy hair. Sort of curly and sort of not, but always half pulled up in a messy way. I don’t think she was being unkept, she just had that kind of hair that was difficult to control. She always smiled. A kind smile. She was a small women who dressed very hippyish. Her style made her a target for snickering comments, but she was warm person, comfortable and easily-appraochable. Now she would be someone you’d sit down with a cup of tea and just listen to her talk. She really cared about those at-times cruel students of hers and whether or not they cared for her, she always smiled at them. Ms. Kent loved science. With all her being you knew she loved the subject she tried so desperately for kids to connect with and want to explore.
I loved science too. From a young age I’ve been drawn to our organic world and why it is the way it is. So naturally we clicked through a common kindness and love of trees.
Tree walks were my favorite. On nice days we would walk around the neighbor and look at the trees. Most of the kids made fun of the “Tree Walks”. They just giggled, talked silently about how stupid it was, but they liked being outside and out of the classroom, so they went along with it.
I always walked up front next to Ms. Kent. We were sort of in our own little quiet world surrounded by the chaos that is middle school. We talked about the trees and we talked to the trees! We talked about the difference in each species and the birds that specialized in each of them. We learned about berries that made some birds act drunk, details like that at least sort of kept the attention of the other kids.
She loved teaching outside the text book. And that is how I learned best.
We learned that in some cases leeches were used to clean wounds, human wounds. When she brought in medical leeches for us to learn about, I was the only volunteer that offered to hold them. She gently pulled them from my palm when they started to attach.
In the spring she took us to a nearby pond and where we gathered water samples. Back in the classroom we discovered a whole other world under the microscope. Those droplets of water she introduced us to were alive and it was fascinating.
She had her friend the raptor lady, Kate Davis, bring in her birds of prey into our classroom. While seeing owls and hawks perched on her forearm, I vividly remember thinking, that is what I want to be.
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A few years later I entered college where I earned a degree in Zoological Sciences. Did Ms. Kent have anything to do with that? Absolutely. She not only nurtured my love of science at a very impressionable age, she enthusiastically encouraged it.
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She embraced me so dearly when Danny died. She knew Danny and she remembered me too. That hug sealed a relationship that through the years has meant a lot to me.
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