This week our middle son, Gage, started Kindergarten. I know it’s such a cliche phrase but it’s just so hard to believe “how fast time flies by.” Seems just like yesterday I was in the hospital room watching this guy enter the world.
So last week I started a new series that we’re running on Thursdays entitled “Thursday Is For Thinking.” It’s my attempt to lure you lurkers into joining the community and getting you guys to know each other a little bit. Here’s this week’s question:
Which class in high school or college impacted you the most? Why?
I’m going with the typing class I had as a freshman in high school. Still using what I learned in that class everyday!
Your turn…
Theatre! I found a teacher who really cared about her students and a hobby that has lasted for 11 years so far. That teacher and I are still in contact and she still caress about my life.
I choose 2 college classes for the professors: 1) Discrete Math 2 & 2) Software Engineering 2. Here’s why on both.
1) The prof in the math course was a lady who was passionate about her students & about math, and it showed. I didn’t care too much for the math, but I couldn’t help but pay attention & learn something because of her passion.
2) The software prof was an easy going man, but made the course very hard. A student had to really work hard to earn the grade. He taught me that hard work isn’t bad, and that hard things can actually be fun.
discrete math? that’s funny.
“what? math?! no sir, i’m not doing math. on my phone? no way, there’s no calculator on my phone; it’s not fancy like that — oh, well i was just… uh… er… texting, yeah texting. yeah, and my girlfriend says hi.”
“psss… hey. don’t tell anyone i told you, but check out this pythagorean theorem stuff i’m working on. it’s so cool. and when i put my notebook inside this newspaper, nobody can even tell i’m doing it. it’s so awesome. but shhh, keep it on the DL.”
Creative Writing with Mrs. Smith, my second year of Junior College. She convinced me I could write and should write. From then on I’ve tried to let those creative juices flow. Thank you Mrs. Smith, wherever you may be.
Highschool home economics–I decided to sit with a group of people who were looked down upon for being druggies, greasers and geeks. We learned a lot from each other.
College psychology–The professor was the most gentle, loving man I had ever encountered. He, without knowing it, helped me begin to open up boxes I had locked in my heart, which led to healing in so many ways.
The teacher’s level of passion and compassion always made a huge difference in what I learned, how I learned and if the learning mattered for life or just for the next test.
in high school, my honors world geography teacher gave me a ‘b’ for a 91.48 when a 92 was an ‘a.’ i asked him if he’d please consider rounding it up, because i’d never made a ‘b,’ and it would ruin my gpa.
he looked me in the eye, and asked if i’d tried my hardest in his class — or had i tried to do just enough to get by with a 4.0? i answered him honestly (blasted judeo-christian ethics of honesty), and he left it a ‘b.’
it was the first time something in school was about working hard, and not about getting a particular score.
High school choir. We learned about dedication, passion, versatility and friendship. I like to think I still carry that with me 10 years later.
I bet you like Glee.
*Actually* not so much…Glee really annoys me! LOL… I’m more of a Pretty Little Liars & Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel kind of girl.
NOW, I don’t know how you watch American Idol!
I would have to say my high school sociology class. Our teacher conducted this trust experiment where we were paired off. One student was blindfolded and the other lead him or her around. We went down staircases, walked the halls, etc.
I was astonished to see how cruel some of the kids were. One actually allowed another to fall down the stairs. But I was equally encouraged how kind most of the kids were.
Sort of like life.
Badminton in both high school and college. Now i have the opportunity to share my knowledge and talents with a group of about 20 senior citizens on a weekly basis. Not only does it help keep them active, but creates a social outlet as well.
Mrs. Andrew’s English class. I had her two times in high school, I think for both freshman and junior year English. She was a teacher who engaged her students, whether it was teaching us the parts of a sentence through song (the only reason I know what gerunds and participles are) or having us recite Shakespeare with proper drama in our voice. I think she is actually the only teacher from high school whose name I remember.
The class that influenced me most was my first college marketing class, MKT 300. At the time I was prepared to major in management and this class made me fall in love with marketing and change that major.
Now, I serve as Worship and Creative Arts Pastor @ my church and I use many of the things I learned in Marketing for work here at Harvest Church.
That class changed my whole path of college and I am pretty sure my whole life path and the way I think.
I still think Dr. Reynolds every time I see her.
I took a course about Southern literature and it had a big impact on me. Also, a public speaking course I took Junior year of college convinced me to steer my career choices away from any job that would require me to speak publicly.
by far Sociology my senior year because it challenged me to ponder what I actually believed about the world, not what my parents, extended family or church believed about the world.
It was groundbreaking for me, led me to question for six months if I even believed in God (sometimes I didn’t), but as scary as it sounds it was totally necessary for me.
Any class that gets you to think is good.
Creative Writing: Poetry, with Dr. Lombardy, was a pivotal point in my growth as a poet. The critiques forced me to “kill my darlings”* yet again, to really think through word and phrase choices, and to look at my own writing more critically overall.
* That’s writerspeak for “delete the words and phrases you hold great affection for but are diminishing the quality of your writing and really aren’t necessary anyway.”
Typing in high school definitely still has an impact on me today because I use it every day.
As for college, I think the class that impacted me the most was my Constitutional Law class if only for the fact that when we were studying out Supreme Court cases, I was assigned Roe v. Wade, the case that legalized abortion. I had an opportunity to share my faith and my opinion when presenting it to my class. Although I wish I could have said more, I am glad that God gave me that opportunity.
11th grade History
My teacher had a passion for the small things in History. He was interested in the everyday man. This taught me the beauty in looking at everyday things.
Since you have given me a choice between high school and college, I will go with a high school course. It was the only class that I could never get an A in and for some reason I decided to take it 2 years in a row… French.
My French teacher was always asking me if I was speaking Franglais (French and English mixed together). To tell the truth, I probably was. Her favorite thing to ask me in front of the whole class was this:
“Do you want to be a stump, York? Or do you want to be a beautiful tree.”
I never got the point.. maybe it’s why I only got a B. I only had one detention through my whole school career and one Saturday school. And she was the teacher that gave them to me… and not for good reasons either. Maybe she was trying to get me to be a tree. I know I thought she was full of fertilizer.
I eventually leafed high school behind but in the autumn of my life, I now see her words coming to fruition. My hair is cascading to the ground and my trunk is getting thicker. I have also dropped a couple of nuts that will one day grow into beautiful young ladies ..er.. trees.
And now, 25 years later, I can still say:
Je ne sais pas!
and
Je parles francais un peu.
and
Ou est WC?
Plus I can sing a whole song about a chef plucking the feathers from a bird.
That is some useful stuff right there… the stuff that trees are made from.
By the way… I would mention that my 6th grade science teacher taught me something that I still use today.
“You are here to learn how to learn.”
In high school my junior year our Sociology teacher took several of us aside and started a Current Events class. We met first hour each morning and would discuss current news items locally and around the world. The teacher was great. She worked so hard to help us expand our minds in a pretty rural setting. The result for me is that I now work at an international mission organization.
3 classes come to mind:
High School Advanced Comp – learned how to write papers & it was a huge benefit for my college classes
High School Physics – it was a really difficult class & I came in often in the mornings or stayed after school for help. My teacher was always very patient (he also had his chemistry students asking for help too). He challenged me to find answers to my own questions but was a patient teacher & explained concepts multiple times until it finally clicked. It’s one of 2 classes I left knowing I actually learned (& retained) something.
Economic Anthropology of the Third World (college) – took this class as a Junior after changing majors & the first day we learned the class was to write a 20 page paper by midterm, then revise it into a 10 page paper for the final. Day 1 – 25 students, Day 2 – 9 students. Normally, I’d run from a class like this, but I stuck w/ it. And challenging myself to accomplish this class & successfully completing it was very motivating. [Not to mention afterward, I could whip out a 3, 5, or even 7 page paper the night before it was due
- really helped my senior year]
You’re smart!!
Creative writing in college. It was the first time anyone had ever really given me permission to let my imagination run wild, and my professor told me that, while it was rather disturbing, what I’d written was really good and I had some real talent there. I had never heard that before.
Interesting that you say that was your favorite class.
Mine was my freshmen year of college as well.
It was written comp. class and was the most creative class I have ever been. All of our papers had to be ridiculous in nature but yet have a point, an argument, a theory. I loved learning how to write and write creatively. I learned to love writing in that class.
Another class that was awesome was a class in College called Christian Spirituality (ya i went to a bible college).
The class consisted of taking retreats to cabins and reading dead guys. That was it. It was perfect. I discovered AW Tozer and Henri Nouwin in that class.
Have I mentioned that I have man crush on Tozer..
That is definitely allowed, me too
I would say that the persuasion class that I took in college is something that has stood out to me just as far as things that I remember from time to time.
Other than that, I would say it was probably the public speaking classes that I had to take as a communications major. I use that information every week.
Going to college at all was major enough for me. I didn’t think I ever would, having become a mother so young, and then quickly becoming single after that. When I finally started college at the age of 24, I cried all the way across campus to my first class. I was a joyful wreck. That first class was sociology. Both my sociology professor and one of my English professors encouraged me to write. If I ever do….(haha)…..I’ll say those classess and teachers impacted me the most.
I’d have to say sophomore and junior history in high school. I had the same teacher both years, and he helped me to realize that there are more important things to worry about than being a Democrat in a Republican-heavy town.
Wow! Thought I might be the only one who valued their typing class from high school. Unfortunately I regressed during the semester as I started out on an electric typewriter and then had to switch to an old manual machine halfway through the semester. Talk about taking a hit on your wpm!
Not a copycat, but for me, also typing.
Had to take it in summer school because there was no place to fit it in and get all the math and science courses I wanted. Smartest thing I ever did. In school, that is.
I thought long and hard on this, and couldn’t come up with anything (wow, I must be weird). Then the thought came to me…in 2008/2009 I entered into the Bachelor of Education program at the ripe old age of 39/40 (I turned 40 during the school year). One of the profs I had taught us math (how to teach it, that is) and literacy. I think he impacted me the most in math because I suck at math.
I told him how much I hated math, that I sucked at it, didn’t understand it, and I couldn’t do it. He had such a compassion and really understood. We had to do a presentation (with another person in the class), and I was paired with someone who was really good at math. She did a great job on the presentation, me, not so much. I was worried that I would bring the mark down and she would have to suffer for it. If that was the case, I said that I would talk to the prof and have him give me the low mark and her a better one.
Anyway, this prof was very encouraging and said I did great, and the fact that I didn’t run from the room or freak out (which I told him I was afraid I might do because of the way I felt about my math skills) was a great thing.
I learned a lot from him, and he encouraged me and gave me confidence to teach math. Mind you I can’t teach anything above grade 3 or 4 or 5 (can’t do fractions and geometry, etc.), but still, I can at least do early elementary math, lol.
P.S. not sure why my “last blog” post is showing as it does. I’ve had 2 or 3 posted since the one that is showing.
Yeah, that’s frustrating all over again isn’t it?
Great topic Pete. For me it was several Humanities classes taught by Prof Howard Fulweiler. He was an extraordinary teacher and I wanted to explain why but couldn’t in such a short space so I blogged about it.
Mine was 11th Grade History as well. Our teacher, Mr. Gibson, had a flair for helping his students “feel” the history lessons. Many times he would play music from the era and read to us (as a voice-over) from the text. Changed my perspective on history entirely. Years later my wife and I used the same techniques to homeschool our daughter. What fun!
For me it was Statics and Electronics, for the same reason. Although taught by different professor, and they did not know each other.
Within a week of each other, I was taken aside and encouraged to not stop at an Associates Degree, but to move toward a Bachelors and Masters in Engineering.
Without them I would have not realized that potential in me.
I almost failed statistics.
I almost failed Statistics too… it was really close
11th grade Government….1984….the year that Mondale opposed Reagan for the Presidency! That was good stuff!
I fell head over heels in love with politics that year!
My highschool developmental psychology class. Instead of rotating 30 or so students in and out every trimester for hour long classes, this class was 2 hours long and was made up of the same 13 students for the entire school year.
I got to know, and become friends with, kids I probably never would have talked to because we didn’t run in the same circles. My first lesson on not judging a book by it’s cover
Auto Mechanics in high school…do they still offer that course? It was the first time I realized I was handy.
Now I tell my three grown daughters: If you don’t marry a rich man, be sure and marry a handy man…
I loved shop class in 8th grade. Made a birdhouse.
In 7th grade we built a corner of a house that you could have hung your birdhouse from.
There is nothing like a bunch of 7th graders running electric wire and plumbing… especially when we hooked up the live current to see if our lights and outlets worked.
I learned SO much from Anthropology 100 in College. I made great friends and learned so much. I even considered going into a Social Science career after that!
Melissa, having read your blog (Jasper Walls) regularly, I wholeheartedly agree that you CAN write – and very beautifully. If God ever puts a book on your heart, please do write it! You and Anne Jackson, among others, both have been given that gift.
The class that (would have) influenced me the most? The one no one, not even in Bible College, taught, and no minister in my decades of going to church has ever preached on – “Who are our neighbors? What does it mean to love them.”
To sum up the answers I found – our “neighbors” are everyone we meet: our families; the poor; immigrants; orphans; widows; government workers and leaders; our enemies; Christians from other churches; the sick, handicapped, elderly, prisoners, etc., etc. How do we love them? By helping them in whatever way we’d help Jesus if we met him and he was in their situation.
To me, that would have been life changing. And was – after I “dug” deeply enough into the Bible to find it.
Peter, you are a sweet encourager to me. Thank you.
A tie: my Pan-Africanism class with one of the toughest professors whose reason and argument silenced and intimidated every Christian in that class. I refused to be one of them. I learned firsthand how the idolatry of “knowledge” was futile. But I also learned the importance of my need to be humble when challenging everything that exalts itself against God and the truth of His Word.
The second class that impacted me the most was College Algebra. The class wasn’t impacting because of the content but because of the professor’s teaching style. He never taught you anything he didn’t test you on. His style was clear, practical and to the point. I thought to myself, “Why can’t pastors teach and preach with the same approach?” It’s funny how Dr. G’s teaching style has impacted my own ministry and even the way I teach my students in the classroom.
Your 1st choice reminded me of what my 1st pastor in San Diego told us: “The man who has an experience is never at the mercy of the man who has a theory.”
Glad you had the experience!
I would have to say that it was my college Old Testament History class taught me the most. Probably because I failed the class, it was the first time I’d failed anything and it was a really big eye opener for me, it made me evaluate myself, where I wanted to be, and let me know I could fail from time to time and still be ok, God still loved me and still had a plan for my life. And, wouldn’t you know I had to re take that same class the next semester, and got an A!!
Spanish I in high school! Met this nice, cute, guy and we’ve been married now for 20 years! Who says French is the language of love?!
Wow!!!!!!!
Close call. College was uninspiring, so I’ll go with high school.
Advanced Chemistry (which wasn’t in the original plan, but a last-minute choice) changed my career path … not that I’m working in that field anymore.
AP English Composition encouraged me to write (after my creative writing teacher was less than encouraging). For years I didn’t use that much, but now I do.
I agree “time flies” cause if seems like your first “Thinking Thursday” started yesterday!
I would say music class changed my life. I can remember where I was sitting in a classroom when a 6th grade teacher put on a record of the opera, Carmen. I was spellbound. Although, I didn’t grow up to be an opera singer, being moved by music – fueled by several encouraging teachers- helped me (a very shy person, voted most reseved(oh my) have the nerve to pursue my career in music.
So cool.
I went to a “fundy christian school” from K5 until i graduated college…seriously, at age 40, still dealing with fallout from that.
So I can’t really think of one positive thing…maybe my typing class as well…i took two years of it and was the only boy in each class. I received the top grade each year…yup, that is my highlight.
College Geography and Economics.
It was there I learned that there was more out there than just US. (United States).
There are different beliefs, cultures, lands and they all contribute or take away from this wonderful world in which we live.
I think I am more open minded because of the class each time I sit with someone new. I do not tend to be a pre-judger because of it.
The official name was “Independent Study in Physical Sciences” but it was basically advanced placement physics. I loved it because the teacher allowed me to pursue my passion at the time…lasers and holographic images.
The fact I was into all of that and chose radio for a career more than irritated members of my family.
Social Entrepreneurship
In this class, ASU Professor Dr. Shockley, literally changed the course of my life and my view of business, nonprofits, and social change.
We’ve since become friends and have even collaborated on research projects together.
He’s adorable! Ok, I have 2. Teaching the Exceptional Child and Teaching with the Brain in Mind.
Okay, this is going to sound so corny, but the class of “life” is the one I have learned from and have benefited from the most. This class has taught me more than any textbook or teacher could ever teach me. And you know what I’m still in the class sitting at the desk with my #2 pencil just waiting to see what life is going to teach me from one day to the next!
High school: Journalism
College: Research Methods
I enjoyed the research, hours in the library and writing papers. However, I was not happy about the statistics involved with research methods. We did get to experiment on lab rats which I found morbidly entertaining. Both classes were taught by teachers that engaged, made me laugh and encouraged my propensity to read articles/books that were not a part of the required coursework.
On a sidenote, perhaps I would have gotten better grades if I had stuck to the required reading instead of spending hours in the library reading Tolkien.
I would have to say Art & Ceramics b/c I still do art today and sell, donate, or gift my work…
Though I was a wiz at Math & Science, I am SUPER creative
Well, if i knew my mom read this, I would say my pre-calculus class my jr. year of high school…but since she probably won’t, I’m going to go with college.
There were several classes that greatly impacted me. The 2 most were probably:
1-Preachers Inner Life: a semester long study of Mark’s gospel & Jesus’ inner life shown in it…we also studied other significant leaders throughout history…
2-Christian Spirituality: semester long study of the Christian disciplines: journaling, confession, fasting, prayer, reading, etc…(Celbration of Discipline was our text book).
In both of these classes we read a lot of what my professor called “The Dead Guys.” These were guys like; CS Lewis, Thomas Akempis, Augustine, Brother Lawrence, Henri Nouwen…we read a decent amount of living guys too.
I couldn’t beleive I actually did this, but I college I took a cooking class just for fun. The thing is, it was actually a bit challenging. You had to learn quite a bit of biology and chemistry. To this day, I say it was the class that benefited me the most. I now can cook just about anything and I’m not scared to create without a recipe
Definitely Statics. Potentially one of the driest and most boring topics on earth, but our teacher Barth was AMAZING. He loved to teach, and it showed. His passion for teaching and learning was infectious. I was later reminded of him when I saw Dead Poet’s Society with Robin Williams. I was very blessed to have him as a teacher.
Hmm. There are probably 2. I took a California history class my sophomore year of college, and had an amazing teacher. He challenged me to think outside of the box and a taught me that history can be fascinating in so many ways. It was also the hardest class I took, but it was so so worth it. My final paper was on the formation of the stereotypes of Orange County, done by comparing Arrested Development (the TV show) and the Real Housewives of Orange County.
The other class that impacted me was Politics of the Middle East. It was a class in which I was one of the few people NOT from the Middle East. You can imagine the interesting debates had in that class. Ultimately, this class gave me a new love and understanding for the Middle East. Through this class God gave me the desire to go to the Middle East and love people there, so in less than a week I am off to do just that for the next year of my life.
Currently sitting in Leadership class at Georgia Southern, so hopefully this will be one of the ones that can have good impact!
I hope so!
I am not too sure I would say a class but more of those who have taught the class. I had several classes in Seminary that really were awesome and was a Theology class – believe it or not.
So many good ones..loved my teachers especially the history teachers who always set up fake digs for artifacts n also went surfing w us!
There are so many NOT favorite classes. I think yearbook my Jr & Sr years of HS. I think those classes sparked my interest in design and composition. I guess those or molecular biology, but i clepted out of that one after a week or 2…it was cake.
I totally forgot about “yearbook”.
My sophomore year high school AP European History class stands out because it was taught by such an incredible teacher. The community that he fostered in our class was astounding– students from all different social cliques came together in a way that I had never and have not since seen.
This discussion could not be more timely for me. I started my career as a high school teacher yesterday. Amidst all the chaos of the start of my “real world life”, reading all of your posts is really reminding me of how (and why) God led me to this profession. Thank you all for the reminder
high school~ SPEECH
it was one of the hardest classes to get into because the teacher was fun. round tables instead of desks, couches, lamps and Christmas lights. but that i not what i loved. (never actually sat on the couch…hmmmm)
i loved that she loved us. she believed in us…or at least me. i was a shy, insecure, overweight kid. i didn’t really have many friends…some how in her class i gained confidence and a belief that i was someone and i had a voice and i could change my little corner of the world.
college ~ English 101
i loved my professor. he recently passed away and it got me thinking about him and what i loved. i went to a small bible college in Alabama. we were a family. everything was simple and loving and dr. greene gave us that every day. i love reading and writing, so it wasn’t a hard class, but it was more then that. he taught us (or at least me) to write from my heart. to believe in the voice we have and to let it flow from within. people are reading us…who we are…we don’t have to change that because its a paper. i loved that….it was freeing!!!
Now, this is probably going to sound weird, but I loved biology class and studying the amazing creatures and anatomy that God created. The thing I remember most was a video of sperm being released and swimming up to the egg. I was fascinated and I think it helped me wait til marriage to have sex!
English, senior english to be nire exact. I’ve always enjoyed reading and writing but once I got to my senior year I realized I loved english. I loved reading and the writing. The teacher was awesome and she impacted me in more ways than she’ll ever know.
My English Lit class definitely had the most impact on me in hs. The teacher was amazing and he showed me how teaching can influence lives
Two classes in college: 1. religion Intro to Christianity course and 2. Autism. The intro to Christianity course was taught by a professor who was a Christian but after studying religion became disillusioned with it. This was the first time I heard competing views and ideas about Christianity. It taught me to think and reason and figure out what I believe and WHY. The Autism course introduced me to my passion and made me realize God gave me a gift to understand and work with those with Autism. It was an experience-driven course and perfect for me. Seeing as I am now in Graduate school for Special Education emphasis on Autism I believe it impacted my entire life!
Has to be either wood shop or band/orchestra, By my Junior year it was clear that I wasn’t going to graduate with my class. An arrangement was made to let me have as many wood shop classes as I could take and still get my required math and english in. I was still a half credit short so they decided to give me 1/2 credit for playing base drum in the band. I’m still using some of my high school projects and can still carry the beat.
Mission Of The Contemporary Catholic.
If you ever wanted a clearer outline for how to be a good Christian it was in this class, and everything was so practical too. I even loved writing papers for the class.
There were two impactful classes for me in high school. The first was English Lit. Mr. Watson was a tough teacher – and one of the only instructors I ever had who cared enough to teach his students the art of studying. The second was Cooking. As a private chef, I can thank Mrs. Stewart for her instruction and willingness to allow us to explore food. I still remember the school hallway filling with the aroma of brandy when we smuggled the stuff in to flame cherries for Cherries Jubilee.