(Gack! The surprise attack that wasn’t!)
Well, I’m quite behind the ol’ 8-ball (again) – what with my day job and teaching 3 college classes – I can’t seem to get these ol’ essays onto the current date and time. Perhaps those school holidays will afford me some reflective moments to catch up. That’s why I think I’ve elected to write a bit about those influential teachers in my life: it makes for easy writin’ – I don’t have to probe my unconscious or subconscious much – I merely have to relay what was…
Dr. Raymond Comeau was a mystic of sorts. The last I heard – he had gone into the woods of Michigan, or Wisconson, or Minnesota — to become some white-robed guru. I knew him before he got too strange. I knew him when his nose was swollen with a preponderance for Drink. When his wife used to reign him in when she’d felt he had too much.
Ray was a pretty cool character: his approach to training teachers was second to none. Back in the mid-70s – he would videotape us doing practice lessons in front of the class – and then go over these tapes with us! Talk about clinical education. I remember being videotaped at least twice (perhaps three times) in a college tri-mester! I learned a lot about the art/science of teaching under Ray-bo! And then he was bounced after the chair of education was awarded to-a-man-of-color. Ray-bo was quite upset, and frankly, this other fellow couldn’t hold a candle to Ray. But it was the time of affirmative action – and EVERYTHING needed to be balanced…
Dr. Carlfred Broderick put my educational journey into perspective for me when he asked for my forgiveness on his deathbed. Well, he wasn’t actually on his deathbed – but he was pretty damned close! And I’m not sure that he would appreciate my use of the term “damned”; after all – he was a Mormon bishop – with 8 children to his credit. I remember at his funeral – when his son; a dear friend of his; and, another Mormon bishop eulogized him in such fashion that it seemed as if Carlfred was right there. I realized then that it would take me 3 lifetimes to accomplish what Carlfred did in 68 years – but at least it got me started trying to catch up to him.
But the fact that he told me that he couldn’t go comfortably to his grave without my forgiveness has stuck with: it was THE nodal point in my life. Here was a giant of a man (and he was pretty tall) – asking me for forgiveness. I was hoping that he saw the Divinity in me and that was what prompted him in this petition. Alas, he simply felt guilty for treating me badly during our time together at USC (I didn’t think he treated me badly at all: recalling my German mother and old school father). But Carlfred did suggest that he had “pushed” me harder than he had pushed any other human being. I suggested it was because I reminded him of his nasty step father (he didn’t disagree [Hell! I reminded my own father of his father {my grandfather}]).
And perhaps that’s what I’m here for – to remind people of their fathers – except for my own sons – who seem content without a father. Is it because I’m so good – or so ineffectual? In the immortal woods of Dubya: “Leave it to posterity, er, history.”