Teachers and Leaders

There are a lot of teachers around us.

Mr. Ebeling was my seventh grade home room teacher and taught social studies and physical education in the upper grades at St. Paul.

Journalism became my career goal because of Mr. Ebeling.   He introduced us to the weekly Milwaukee Journal News Quiz.

I loved playing that quiz each week.  I wasn't very athletic and was never going to be a top athlete, but I started to devour the nightly (yes, kids, there were late afternoon papers "back in the day) Janesville Gazette.

Looking at the paper in our living room before Dad got home from work, I sprawled out on the floor to read the front page with the latest in state and national news.  Why?  I'm not sure.  I think there was something about knowing what was going on that excited me.  Those little bits of information would stick in my brain, ready to be unleashed in the quiz.

You know, the benefit of hindsight leaves me wondering how much my classmates disliked those quizzes.  Another boy in the class seemed to have all the answers too; so generally we were placed on different teams. 

Those tests got me interested further in news - which led me to working on the school paper in High School - which pointed me in the direction of Drake and a degree in Journalism followed by ten years working in radio and television news.

That career opened doors in sales and then development; and the "parlor trick" of knowing the answers to news quizzes now helps start conversations with people I meet. 

The past weekend's return to the JLIT didn't include an opportunity to talk with Mr. Ebeling.  But, I was not surprised to see him working hard at center court.

The annual get-together was brought together through a lot of hard work led by him.  He coached, organized, and tirelessly worked to make it a big event for the host school and the guests.

I bet every school, church - truly - every organization has their own Mr. Ebeling.  It seems like a good time to say thank you.

During my trip back down memory lane I visited with my English teacher from St. Paul's.  Mrs. Redman provided the best gift a teacher can give a student... the gift of requiring hard work to get a good grade and more importantly, to make sure we learned.

This might lead into a subject for another day, but in sharing an update with her I was amazed at how much she had kept up with things I did and how, for the rest of my life, any teacher I had will always deserve and receive a Mr., Mrs., or Ms. when addressing them.

We owe a debt of gratitude to our teachers and leaders from our youth - even though we may not think of their impact in our earliest years - it's clear to me that they all helped my parents in creating a solid foundation I'm blessed to build upon.