Retrospect: subject s-100

Self-tutoring about people and events from the past: the tutor reflects on s-100.

Subject s-100 was a teacher of mine in late elementary. She was unique among my teachers in numerous ways, and ahead of her time in a few. She had her foibles which are memorable as well.

s-100 was my first teacher to sit us in a “ring around the room” configuration, with all the desks facing inward. Her desk, set apart a bit, could be seen to be part of the ring. Why she chose that configuration I’m not sure – possibly it was so students couldn’t hide behind others. She kept that arrangement throughout the year.

That year I lived in a farming district of Nova Scotia. s-100, among all the teachers I had, seemed to identify most strongly with the farm kids. She lived on a farm herself. Whether or not she hunted and trapped when I knew her, she indicated knowledge of both.

s-100 did seem to struggle a bit with ethics. She used to give out a lot of worksheets, almost never hole-punched. One time a student asked her why she didn’t hole-punch them, since it would be much easier for her to do than for us. “Because I don’t want to,” was her reply.

Another time, a somewhat dodgy situation developed in which s-100 insisted that a student take responsibility for something that arguably wasn’t their fault. The student pointed out that s-100 was being unfair, and she might report it to the principal. “But who are they going to believe?” s-100 asked. “You, or me?” s-100 didn’t seem to understand the implications of that question.

In that context, kids could – and did – fail grades. At the beginning of the year, s-100 pointed out that she was willing to fail a student who passed academically if they weren’t socially ready for the next grade. I haven’t heard such a claim from anyone else. Was she willing to go through with that threat? Perhaps. However, no-one failed my year with her.

I think one reason s-100 was a bit self-indulgent sometimes was because she didn’t demand much from us, either. I’d say we did more work the previous grade than in hers, and in the next we did much more. “Be quiet – you’re getting a good deal, anyway,” is something I can imagine her thinking. She wasn’t wrong, all things considered.

My year with s-100 was likely one of the easiest of my life. Even despite her foibles, does she deserve credit for that? Perhaps. She had a type of intelligence that was hard to measure or predict, and may have understood what was best for us far better than I know.