John P. Crotty
School is now out. Writing this paper keeps seventh period in my mind. My first memory is Lise. She wanted me to fix her bike. Since I’m not that mechanical and since there doesn’t seem to be enough time during the end of the year, I didn’t. But what an opportunity I wasted. This could have made the school environment much more real and friendly to her. Since Lise was a class leader, maybe a few other students would have become more interested in school.
This is not to say that the class was bad. A second memory is Maurice. He blossomed into a B student with me this year. I feel that with more usage of bicycles I would have more active involvement from more students. They too would not be afraid to show Maurice’s enthusiasm towards school.
A final memory is Anthony, a junior high student I taught in Baltimore. In the early seventies when I started teaching, I had forty students in a class. I didn’t think about using bicycles then, but we did play roller derby. I divided the class into teams and we computed decimals and percentages. Well I can’t skate, so I used to get beat on. The next year, Anthony says to me, “I hope I have you again so I can play roller derby.” It will be interesting to see the reactions of seventh period in September.