A Belated Teacher Appreciation
By: Ailionora Lucid.
My name is Ailionora Lucid and I’ve been at Mission for nine months.
Nine months is a little funny to say. It’s got a few meanings. That’s how long it takes to have a child, or at least that’s what first comes to mind. In this case though, thank God, babies and pregnancy don’t have anything to do with it.
In this case, nine months refers to the length of a school year.
I haven’t been here the whole time of course, in fact I’ve missed a few more days than I’d have liked, but the general spirit is clear.
Starting at Mission last fall had a special significance for me. My mother graduated from this school in the early 70’s and hated every minute of her experience here. I’ve grown up with stories of the strung out , angry gang members of the 1970’s, and am quite sure that she even smiled at me over dinner, glad that I wouldn’t have the same high school experience that she did.
I’m glad to say that the Mission of my mother’s youth is not the Mission that I found when I came here. While I can’t say that I wasn’t a little intimidated in my first week, it had little to do with the students and more to do with the sheer size of the school. As I went to San Francisco Waldorf High School, a school of just over 130 students, the two years prior to this, Mission seems huge.
Teachers here are some of the most interesting and diverse that I have ever encountered. Ms Tom made quite an impression of course. With height balanced out by her temper, during the first week I was more than a little intimidated. That dissipated quickly. Of any teacher this year she has offered me the most opportunities to learn and work, recommending summer programs and supporting my work (when it happens, as I can be inconsistent) in the library after school. She has pushed the chemistry class beyond your average course with massive amounts of dedication even though she often had to pay out of pocket for materials for lab work and made me feel prepared for a college level chemistry course, something that I had never before seriously considered as a possibility.
I know that there will be a few things I forget about my experience here, but Ms Tom and her class definitely won’t be one of them.
