Saints Still Need Love

Four beautiful women helped in my growing up. There were more than that. I choose now to dwell on only four of them.

They were each devoted to children. They were particularly skilled in the patient art of proper instruction. They were my first through fourth grade teachers.

Miss Annie Cutter, whose splendid 4’2” frame housed an indomitable spirit, led about 25 of us in that first grade class through our earliest lessons. When one of us was out of bounds, out came the paddle, a weapon translated from a toy, the kind with the rubber string and bouncing ball. The pain it produced affected the body little, but how it injured one’s pride.

Mrs. Lasater, who upon my graduation ten years later, gave me a set of cuff links I still cherish, led us through the second grade. Now, through the mist of memory, I can remember her kind eyes, wrinkled on each side, smiling over the antics of her charges.

In the third grade, almost all the boys developed an infatuation with Miss Riddlesperger, who still reminds me of June Allyson, that splendid movie star of that era who played so many “perfect” women. She helped the boys not only to make it past the infatuation, but to learn a few third grade principles as well.

After her well deserved retirement, Mrs. Horn, who taught fourth grade, must have enjoyed the satisfaction that so many of her charges had become very productive citizens of the world. It must have given her some sense of accomplishment to know that the tales of knowledge she shared had been, at least to some degree, absorbed.

There were others, but these four, probably because they were the earliest, count the most. Over the years I have enjoyed renewed flashes of just how important they were. Today, with mounting criticisms of schools, the chilling allegations about the ineptitude of teachers and administrators alike, it is a marvel at how inclined we are to forget those patient saints who helped us get through.

It is a marvel to observe the resiliency and courage of those teaches, who even in the face of so little community support and frequent disdain, still do their job very well.

It is true, saints still need love.