  Last month Teacher Appreciation Week came and left before I could blog my intended commentary on the occasion. Since teachers are too important to let slip by, even in my elapsing world, I'm p-blogging this post. Just pretend it's still early May (I wish!). I imagine the poor pay, cheeky attitudes, and hapless parents teachers wade through all year long are to some degree mitigated by the hope that their words will somehow stick with even one of their students. And in my life so many teachers' words still guide me.When I look back at individuals who were most influential, who played a key role in the path I took, teachers comprise the overwhelming majority.
I'm amazed to think of how many special people I found in my small town, Tucumcari, NM, and later in college at UT El Paso. In a small attempt to say thank you, here's my teachers' hall of fame: Mrs. Hall , 6th grade homeroom: Mrs. Hall helped to undo the damage by a particularly bad 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Flynn. Mrs. Hall gave me her home phone number for summer, because she knew my parents were going through some hard times.
She introduced me to funky science fiction and Rudyard Kipling through a special, by invitation only lunchtime reading group. She sneakily called my parents and told them not to pick me up after school when I fell behind in my homework. Shug Johnston , 7th grade English: I still remember the day class schedules for junior high were handed out and my friends sympathetically moaned at the sight of Mrs. Johnston on my paper. She was famous for being a real hardass. As it turned out, she was strict, but fun. I got the highest grade I think I got in all of junior high in her class, and I know I later clepped out of Freshman English in college entirely on the grammatical stronghold I gained from Mrs. Johnston.
She taught me the joy that is diagramming sentences. Later, as I got my first job as a technical writer for the MFA,H, I still called upon the comical way she explained when to use its, its', and it's. Larry Chavez , junior high and high school track coach: Mr. Chavez always surprised me by tricking me into running farther than I thought I could have run. I remember the first time I ran to Tucumcari mountain and back to the high school, and how great it felt to accomplish the feat. I remember when I felt like I had to stop and walk, Chavo would put his hand on the small of my back, not really pushing, but just supporting. We came to call it the Chavo push, and it inevitably got us over the hump of fatigue. I didn't appreciate the joy and value running added to my life until after high school, when I had to run on my own volition rather than a coach's.
To this day when I go for a run, I think of those long journeys with Mr. Chavez. Dave Bergren , 9th grade Political Science: Mr. Bergren was the first to call me a screaming liberal. And he was the first to make me love the term. He organized the annual Close-Up trip to Washington, D.C. and I was lucky enough to attend as Freshman because we were able to see Bill Clinton's first inauguration. Needless to say, the event galvanized my interest in politics and public policy. Mr. Bergren did a great job of explaining the political processes of our crazy country, including one of my favorite lessons: why people run for president even if they don't have a shot (to shape the election policies discussed in debates and media events and, hence, influence the agenda of the candidate that does win).
Mr. Bergren helped inoculate me from the series of disastrous history classes my high school offered via the football and wrestling coaches, during which watching movies and playing games substituted for actual tutelage. Lana Enox , 9th and 10th grade English: Ms. Enox introduced me to my favorite and most influential book, Cry, the Beloved Country .
Her carefully chosen texts and the gentle way in which she introduced them encouraged me to minor in literature later in college. I should also acknowledge the high school teachers at the school my boyfriend attended! His name was Bryan Conkling, and he went to a progressive private school in Santa Fe, and, over the course of about a year and a half, would read me his texts late at night over the telephone. As he read the Little Prince or Machiavelli, I discovered my deep love for philosophy and the classics.
My parents got a bargain in paying high phone bills rather than his tuition! I know I wouldn't be the person I am today without that early educational influence. Quality college professors were naturally more abundant. They included my advisor and friend, Dr. David Carmichael; my sociology professor, Dr. Cheryl Howard; the creators of UTEP's humanities series, Drs. Wren and Johnson; the director of the biology lab I worked in (I forgot his name! ); and the director of the UTEP Honors Program, Dr. Lillian Mayberry. Dr. Craig White (minority literature) and Dr. Peter Bishop (Social Change Theory) were also great professors I was fortunate to encounter at UHCL. 
