John Howard

I'd be surprised if he's still alive - he'd be in his 90's. Though it's not unusual for someone to live that long, the "old Sea Daddy," as he sometimes called himself, was a former Marine who was among the first to enter radioactive Hiroshima at the end of WW II. He was also my high school science teacher.

Specifically, Mr. Howard taught me chemistry when I was in 11th grade and physics in 12th. Somehow knew how to get the most out of his students and, after nearly failing me in chemistry with a D in the first quarter, my marks gradually rose to a C, a B, and then a 92 on the final exam and an A for the last quarter.

Then came physics and another rough start. Once we got beyond vectors, it began to make sense. One of the most helpful things Mr. Howard did was to teach us one basic formula and then show us the steps to get from there to the other formulas we would need. With a few simple steps, we could get from an easy-to-remember formula to a more complicated one. It was so much easier, and made much more sense, than simply memorizing a one formula after another.

I thought about Mr. Howard when I was lesson planning for my reading class this morning. The units we teach are incredibly difficult for second-language learners - next week is a 2007 article from The Economist about the West's unfavorable response to the Hamas-Fatah coalition government in Palestine. My students frequently come across words and expressions that they may never see again, like "poster child" and "self-defeating machismo." Still more important from their point of view, is that they will likely be handed a final exam with words and concepts they never saw in class.

So, instead of just teaching them concepts and vocabulary from each unit, I've been trying to teach them how to look at a brand-new article and work, step-by-step, toward an accurate understanding of the most important parts. My goal has been to help them apply simple steps to reach a complicated goal.

The translation of this blog's header is "like teacher, like student." The old Sea Daddy apparently rubbed off on me. I don't know if he knew the concept of "teach others so they can teach others also" but I'm reminded again of how important it is in so many ways.