Thank You Ms. McFarland ... Where ever you are.......

My high school English teacher was a tough cookie. The rumor was that Ms. McFarland never gave anyone an A. I was not the exception to this rule. I scored a few A's on some papers but overall, even super students like myself failed to win over Ms.McFarland.

Ms. McFarland's commitment was that nobody left her Sr. English class without the ability to put a few paragraphs together without sounding like an idiot. She forced a group of "so done" high school Sr.class to read the worst classic literature ever written and vomit up analytical papers on the significance of such loathed literature. As a student, it never occurred to me why in the world she would have us read Barn Burning, A Rose for Emily, The Cask of Amontillado, or the ever horrid Fall of the House of Usher.  Why, oh why, Ms. McFarland would you have innocent high school kids read this stuff? I could not have cared less about Abner Snopes' outcomes or Fortunato's fate.

I hear her rantings about spelling and punctuation in my sleep sometimes. 

"There is A RAT is separate!!" she would declare. I never misspell this word. 

"A lot is two words, people, not one. " She would scrawl it on the chalkboard in giant letters. 

A  LOT

"Semi-colons and colons are not the same!! Colons are for lists. Lists, people, lists."

In spite of her scowls over the top of her of glasses, I liked her. She taught me to read unusual styles of writing with a critical slant, to embrace the English vocabulary, and to write without looking like an idiot. While my peers struggled through English 101, I thought it was a cake walk because Ms. McFarland had already taught me what I needed to know to survive. As a bonus, I got a great love for reading and writing!

I propose a year end toast to the teachers in our lives who gave us a skill or two which keep us from looking like idiots. And another toast for instilling in you something you love.

Thanks Ms. McFarland.......... where ever you are!!
lw

For some of you younger readers who have yet to suffer through this literature, I added some links for your informational pleasure.
Abner Snopes
A Rose for Emily
Cask of Amontadillo
House of Usher