Violet Sager was her name. We called her Mrs. Sager. She was my sixth grade teacher and at the time I didn’t realize it but she was a hero to me in more ways than one. That was the fall in 1955 when many of the country schools consolidated and came to the nearest town school. So in the fall of 1955 my Clinton, MN sixth grade class grew to contain 35 rambunctious, energetic boys and girls. Mrs. Sager was able to control us for nine months which elevates her to hero status! I am confident in stating that because I spent 42 years attempting to control students, sometimes successfully and sometimes not so much. 🙁 So I can imagine the frustration and pressure she must have undergone to maintain a learning atmosphere for 35 unique personalities. And we were unique personalities! That constant pressure to teach 35 students might explain why Mrs. Sager left that following spring for another school. I hope it was for a better salary and greater opportunity and not because we drove her crazy! 🙂
Teachers can have a very powerful influence on a student. It may be a simple statement or action by the teacher but it becomes something that may direct or redirect a student’s life. As a teacher I was always aware of that mostly because of memories I carried with me from comments and actions of my elementary and high school teachers . Later on during my teaching career that was reinforced when students reminded me what I had said to them and how it had affected them. Oftentimes I never even remembered saying or doing what had been so meaningful to them. Hopefully most of the memories were of the positive nature and not the negative!
Mrs. Sager gave us a homework assignment that changed my life. She wanted us to pick our favorite bird and write a report about it. At this point in my life I hadn’t realized I enjoyed writing. I knew I loved entertaining people and making them laugh. I didn’t realize the two could be combined very effectively. That realization would come much later.
I choose the robin to do my homework assignment on. But I decided I didn’t want it to be a boring report so I spiced it up a little bit. I described the red breasted bird flitting from branch to branch singing its melodious song with the beautiful blue sky as a backdrop. Looking back I’m sure I used far too many adjectives and who knows what other grammatical errors were included. But I impressed Mrs. Sager as she put some of the better reports on the bulletin board and mine was included. I can still remember several classmates and myself gathering around the bulletin board reading the displayed reports. “You are a good writer,” several of my classmates told me. At that moment I decided that was something I wanted to do. I wanted to be a writer.
That was the second reason Mrs. Sager became my hero. Her simple writing assignment opened my eyes to a possible career, writing. Maybe some day I would even be able to entertain people and make them laugh through the written word.
Several years ago I was being interviewed by a newspaper reporter and he asked me if there was a significant person in my life that had been instrumental in helping me develop an interest in writing. So I shared my ‘robin report’ story with him. When the article came out in the paper I remember thinking how nice it would be if Mrs. Sager could read about her influence but I assumed she probably was not alive as it had been fifty five years or more since I had written that report.
How shocked I was when several weeks after the newspaper article had been released I received a letter with a very familiar handwriting on it. You see Mrs. Sager had the most beautiful penmanship which I had forgotten until I saw that letter. Opening the letter I discovered Mrs. Sager was very much alive and was a healthy 92 years young! I sent her copies of my four books birthed from that simple writing assignment so many years before. Now we share Christmas greetings each year and I’m so thankful she was able to realize the importance of that simple ‘bird report’ assigned so many years ago.
I began my writing career two years later in the eighth grade. How successful was it? You better check out my next blog to find out. 🙂
Until next time.
