Did You Attend Carleton Elementary?

[grumpyoldlady]

Did you attend Carleton Elementary? If so, I'd love to discuss the "good old days at Carleton" here.

I attended Carleton for grades K-8 before moving on to Arthur Jr. High and then to Denby. I was graduated from Carleton in June of '63.

The pictures EMG posted in the "Growing Up In Detroit" thread, that showed the exterior and some interior shots of Carleton brought back loads of memories.

Does anyone have photos of the old "portables" that were classrooms in old, long buildings located out behind the main school building? They were similar to the one used at Denby at least until '67 for Driver Training....not the newer one they brought in later.

[EMG]

Thanks - I've found this thread.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the portables.

I'll continue to watch this thread in case anything else comes up that I can contribute to.

Just a few other memories and thought-starters to possibly jog memories of others out there...

1) There was a teacher, I believe he was a 4th grade math teacher named Mr. Patalunas [[sp?) who passed away in about '70 or '71. I don't know for sure of what but he had been ill for quite a while so my best guess would be cancer of some sort [[teachers didn't explain stuff like that to 4th graders back in those days). Prior to his death, his class was often taught by substitute teacher Mrs. Pierce.

2) There was a student in my 2nd grade class who died after being struck by a car; this would have been during the '67-68 school year. Our homeroom teacher at that time was Mrs. Melvedt. The student's name was Patrick - I won't post his last name on the Internet but I'm sure anyone who knew him will remember as I do.

3) I remember one year there was a "Fun Fest" activity organized on the playfield, sort of like a mini-carnival [[games, but no rides). Students played a big role in planning and putting on the attractions.

4) Remember the fire drills? And, even more fun, the air raid drills? I always liked the rare opportunity to get to see the basement!

5) As I mentioned in the other thread, the principal while I was there was Mildred Swander. I also just now remember the assistant principal - I believe she was a gray-haired lady named Mrs. Baird. And I also remember another teacher, Mrs. Zalopani [[sp?) who taught art in room 107.

By the way, if you like those Carleton pictures, download them now while they're out there. Looking at my profile information it looks like I've used up about half my space; I'm not sure if that means I'm eventually going to reach a limit and have to delete them before adding more. I have plenty of pictures of several neighborhoods around Carleton, Harper Woods, Eastpointe, the Grosse Pointes, etc. etc. that I may post if opportunities present themselves in other threads. [[I would think those would be of more interest to people like me and GrumpyOldLady who have actually left the state. I check Google Earth / Panoramio periodically but I don't see many pictures of northeast Detroit there. It will be really something if and when the area gets Streetview.

[EMG]

By the way, Arthur changed names at least a couple of times taht I know of. I think it was once called Region 7 Middle School or something like that, then Dorothy Fisher school....and possibly other things after that. But it was called Arthur when I was there. I never attended Arthur or Denby as I left DPS to attend University Liggett starting in 6th grade. But I did frequently ride/walk/run by both.

My mother graduated from Denby in the mid-50's.

[grumpyoldlady]

I had Mr. Patelunas for a couple of semesters. He was a real character. He had a doll that he would make a misbehaving boy play with while sitting on the floor of the classroom by the blackboard. He did die of cancer. He lived on Whitehill and his wife was a teacher at Columbus.

I'll rattle off teacher names from when I was at Carleton. Mrs. Greiling and Miss Gale were kindergarten teachers. Miss Ryan, Mrs. Hahn, Mrs. Boyle, Mrs. Foley, Mrs. Melvedt, Mrs Tehan [[sp), Mrs. Van Ryan, Miss Conflitti, Mrs. Palazzolo, Mrs. Hammer, Mrs. Blixberg, Miss. Krupski, Mr. Mercier and Miss Horn. Special classes... Mrs. Knapp [[library). Music teachers in order were Mrs. Heyden, Mrs. Pfeiffer and Miss Miller. Art - Miss Gusta and then Miss Edmunson. Science..Mr. Burns, Mrs. Frankie and Miss Lemke [[lower grades). Social Studies Miss Lemke, Mr. Broquet and Mrs. Knoll. Gym...Mr. Lambka, Mr. West, Miss Glusac, Miss Glavan, Mr. Ignasiak. Auditorium...Mrs. Weyburn and Miss Roberts. Shop..Miss Conachen and Home Economics..Mrs. Hathaway. Subs were Mrs. Wagerly and Mrs Matheson. Custodian was Mr. Ayotte. Principal was Miss Wenzel and Assistant Principal was Mrs. Baird. Office secretary was Mrs. Lanoo.

There was a kitchen fire [[minor) on a super cold January day in 1963. We had to grab our coats and head outside.

The lockers haven't changed at all....same ones, I'm sure. The gym looks SAD...the floor used to be such a pretty light wood color...now it looks dirty, worn and neglected. The auditorium seats seem to be the same ones, too. I remember the elbow battles I had with Bobby Mazzola over the shared armrest.

Well, that's good for starters. I have copied the photos you posted and will forward to some of my Carleton contacts.

[EMG]

You mention a Mrs. Hahn. She wasn't there when I was at Carleton, but I did know a Mrs. Hahn who lived at 10959 Somerset between Britain and Morang - right around the block from me. She and her husband [[Bill Hahn) used to sit out on their porch all the time and I would talk with them. I never knew that Mrs. Hahn's first name or whether or not she was a teacher...but now I wonder if that Mrs. Hahn was the one you remember as a teacher. I'd bet the odds are reasonable.

The Hahns from Somerset eventually moved away to Florida in about '71. I wrote to them for many years, and I believe Mrs. Hahn passed away sometime in the mid to late 80s and her husband sometime thereafter.

[EMG]

Yikes - I wrote a long, long post about the names I remembered of the ones you listed...then went back to edit some details and accidentally deleted the whole post! GRRRR....I'll come back next time and write again. Getting late for me tonight!

[12468_laing]

I attended Carlton in the early 60's for kindergarden. Had Mrs. Sperling in room 100. She used to straighten out bobby pins to clean out her ears. Don't remember much else.

[12468_laing]

anyone else remember those drills they did in the back hall where you had to sit on your "sitting pad", cover your head in practice for bombing drills in the 60's?
And, anyone know who Will Carlton was?

[grumpyoldlady]

Here's a link to Will Carleton information on Wikipedia....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Carleton

[grumpyoldlady]

12468_laing.....When I left Carleton in '63, they were still hustling everyone down to the basement, with the foam sitting pads or pieces of cardboard, for "air raid" drills. There was one set of pipes that was a real pain to duck under..the teachers really had to bend low. Then they would turn off the lights for a few seconds. I was always afraid that there would be "creepie crawlies" such as spiders, roaches, centipedes.

[EMG]

I attended Carlton in the early 60's for kindergarden. Had Mrs. Sperling in room 100. She used to straighten out bobby pins to clean out her ears. Don't remember much else.

In the '67-68 school year, room 100 was my first-grade classroom, and the teacher was Mrs. Owen.

[EMG]

anyone else remember those drills they did in the back hall where you had to sit on your "sitting pad", cover your head in practice for bombing drills in the 60's?
And, anyone know who Will Carlton was?

I don't remember any "sitting pads." But I do remember the lights being turned out and the teachers going around with flashlights momentarily.

I never worried about creepy-crawlies. I ways always fascinated with the basement and would have LOVED to be able to explore all of it and not just the designated small area reserved for our own homeroom! Of course, I was a lot shorter then. Now I'm over 6'4" tall so there would be a question of whether I'd be able to make my way around there at all!

[EMG]

I had Mr. Patelunas for a couple of semesters. He was a real character. He had a doll that he would make a misbehaving boy play with while sitting on the floor of the classroom by the blackboard. He did die of cancer. He lived on Whitehill and his wife was a teacher at Columbus.

I'll rattle off teacher names from when I was at Carleton. Mrs. Greiling and Miss Gale were kindergarten teachers. Miss Ryan, Mrs. Hahn, Mrs. Boyle, Mrs. Foley, Mrs. Melvedt, Mrs Tehan [[sp), Mrs. Van Ryan, Miss Conflitti, Mrs. Palazzolo, Mrs. Hammer, Mrs. Blixberg, Miss. Krupski, Mr. Mercier and Miss Horn. Special classes... Mrs. Knapp [[library). Music teachers in order were Mrs. Heyden, Mrs. Pfeiffer and Miss Miller. Art - Miss Gusta and then Miss Edmunson. Science..Mr. Burns, Mrs. Frankie and Miss Lemke [[lower grades). Social Studies Miss Lemke, Mr. Broquet and Mrs. Knoll. Gym...Mr. Lambka, Mr. West, Miss Glusac, Miss Glavan, Mr. Ignasiak. Auditorium...Mrs. Weyburn and Miss Roberts. Shop..Miss Conachen and Home Economics..Mrs. Hathaway. Subs were Mrs. Wagerly and Mrs Matheson. Custodian was Mr. Ayotte. Principal was Miss Wenzel and Assistant Principal was Mrs. Baird. Office secretary was Mrs. Lanoo.

There was a kitchen fire [[minor) on a super cold January day in 1963. We had to grab our coats and head outside.

The lockers haven't changed at all....same ones, I'm sure. The gym looks SAD...the floor used to be such a pretty light wood color...now it looks dirty, worn and neglected. The auditorium seats seem to be the same ones, too. I remember the elbow battles I had with Bobby Mazzola over the shared armrest.

Well, that's good for starters. I have copied the photos you posted and will forward to some of my Carleton contacts.

OK, let's see now. Our kindergarten teachers were Mrs. Tenatse [[sp?) and Ms. Neopolitan. Mrs. Hahn I mentioned in my post last night. Mrs. Foley I had forgotten all about but now I remember her now that you brought her name up. Never had her, but wasn't she short with graying black hair? Sort of like s short Maxwell House Lady? Mrs. Van Ryan really spelled her name Mrs. Van Ryn and I imagine it was properly pronounced "Van RIN" but everybody called her and thought of her as Mrs. Van RYAN. I had forgotten Mr. Mercier - again, never had him, but can visualize him now that you've mentioned him. Sort of like an older, taller Joe Garagiola if I recall. I also believe he taught in room 118. [[I have more of an affinity for numbers than names and faces, as you may be beginning to see...) Miss Horn I remember was in room 111 right across the stairwell from the library, but I wonder if her name wasn't really spelled Horne with an extra e at the end? Not sure about that. The only music teacher there during my time there was Irene Miller, and she was great and one of my favorites. Of course music was about my favorite class because it came naturally to me - I played the piano by ear, and Mrs. Miller often let me come up and play for the class which I loved as I was a real ham. I also sing well and was in Mrs. Miller's glee club. The only gym teachers I ever knew were Mr. Ignasiak and Miss Osgood. I had Mrs. Franke for science [[but I thought it was spelled as I did, without the I, again, could be wrong, but...) Mrs. Weyburn during my time I believe had room 116 and was in charge of the duty [[patrol) boys. Wouldn't it have been something if she had lived on Wayburn street which was a few blocks west of the school? I never knew her to have "auditorium." During my last coule of years there we had a Mrs. Lackey for auditorium, and I understand that about the time I left in '72 she left Carleton to take a teaching job at Wayne Elementary which was south of Whittier in the same general area. My shop teacher in 5th grade was Mr. Freeman.

A couple others I remember were Mrs. Grant - blonde hair and taught speech therapy in room 208. Also Mrs. Jones, young brunette who taught math in room 211. Mrs. Jones I later found out lived on Balfour between Morang and Britain, as a few years after leaving Carleton I went to a garage sale on that block and found it it was Mrs. Jones holding the sale! I remember Miss Conflitti and of course Mrs. Melvedt, who was my 2nd grade teacher. One of my friends at the time used to live on Lakepoint, east side of the street and about fifth house south of Morang [[big house that at the time was painted green), and told me that Mrs. Melvedt lived in the house immediately next door and south of him.

Interesting that Mr. Patalunas lived on Whitehill - I also had family on Whitehill beteen Grayton and Britain. Do you know just where Mr. Patalunas lived on Whitehill, or at least between what streets? Boy it would have been interesting if he had been "almost a neighbor" and I never knew it! If you or anyone remember where any of the teachers whose names I mentioned lived at the time, I'd sure be interested in knowing!

I don't remember the "playing with dolls by the chalkboard" - but I was always one of the good boys who got all of the citizenship ribbons for doing what the teacher said. It didn't do much for my popularity with some of my peers but my teachers all liked me!

[grumpyoldlady]

The description you give for Mrs. Foley sounds right. I'm going to dig out my old report cards and look at Mrs. Van Ryn's name, lol. I can't believe I spelled it wrong. When I was there. Miss Horn [[correct spelling), was in the room across the hall from the Shop room, right by the Casino door. Mr. Mercier was next to Miss Horn in .the second door from the entrance. The room across the stairway from the Library was Mrs. Knoll...she would stand in the hall swinging a bull whip as classes passed. She also had a paddle that she'd occasionally use, and she was a dead shot with an eraser. Since her room was right across from the drinking fountain, she would take aim and let fly with an eraser and almost always hit somebody in the butt.

I remember Miss Miller's first name as being Isabelle, but I'm probably wrong. She was WONDERFUL. She came to Carleton after being one teachers or accompanist at Denby. I remember she had been in charge of the boys choir at Denby. I will never forget how she'd sit on that bench and sort of bounce as she played. She was the best! I was in what was called "junior chorus" and then "senior chorus" from 3rd grade until graduation.

Mrs. Dorothy Weyburn was in charge of the safety patrol when I was there, too. She taught auditorium, and sometimes subbed. I'll have to ask my Carleton friend if we ever had Mrs. Weyburn for any other class. I don't remember it if we did. I once asked her if she lived on Wayburn....because I DID! I lived between Morang and Casino.

No Mrs. Grant or Jones. Miss Rosemary Conflitti was one of my favorite teachers. Rumor had it that she and Mr. Ignasiak were a "thing".

Mr Patelunas lived a couple houses south of Whittier on Whitehill. I don't know where any of those other teachers lived. Did you have Mrs. Knapp for Library? She lived on Cloverly in Grosse Pointe. How about Mrs. Wagerly as a substitute. She was a very overweight woman. Super nice. She had two daughters, Pam and Sally who also were very overweight, as was I. They lived directly across from the Lakepointe entrance. Pam and I were best friends. Mrs. Wagerly eventually got a permanent position as a Kindergarten teacher at Fleming Elementary. Her husband was a history teacher at Gabriel Richard.

What more memories can we drag from the depths?

[EMG]

I'm quite sure about Ms. Van Ryn's spelling and Miss Miller's first name being Irene. Still up for negotiation on whether there's an "I' in science teacher Frank[[i)e's name, though, and defer to your superior memory re Ms. Horn

I don't remember Ms. Miller "bouncing" but you jogged my memory as the choir I was in was indeed called the "Junior Chorus" and I also remember there being a Senior Chorus but I'm guessing that for some reason by 5th grade I no longer participated as was in the Junior but never the Senior Chorus. As for flying projectiles I don't think Ms. Knoll was there in my day as I never heard of her but I did have a teacher Miss Harris for fourth grade in room 204 in the '70-71 school year who on one occasion got very flustered and threw a book at the class bully.

Mr. Ignasiak and Ms. Conflitti an item? Back in the day I would have been more willing to believe Mr. Ignasiak and Miss Osgood, if only because they worked together all the time! In actuality I would have said though that either of them would have been too young for him - oh I know he wasn't quite old enough for Miss Horn, but then again he had greyish hair and to anyone who's a single digit number of years old anyone with even slightly grey hair is a candidate for assisted living..... [[OK end of joking...)

The only library teacher I ever had was Elizabeth Horvath. She was an older lady with white hair....sort of up there with Miss Horn and Miss Frank[[i)e. But she was nice. She was in charge of the Hall Monitors - and appointed me as one when I was in 5th grade. I was assigned to the station at near the south end of the West Casino hallway. I never had/heard of Mrs. Knapp but interestingly enough I did have a teacher at University Liggett in Grosse Pointe - where I transferred after leaving Carleton in '72 - who lived on Cloverly between Chalfont[[e) [[another spelling that varied depending on what part of the street you were on) and Mack.

My DENTIST'S office used to be on the southwest corner of Morang and Wayburn - Morang Dental Centre.

Never had or heard of Ms. Wagerly.

This Mrs. Knoll with the paddle and bull whip - no teacher ever used a paddle or bull whip during the time I was there - though some of my classrooms would have been a much better place if they had been allowed to!! Did they, seriously, allow and use corporal punishment at DPS while you were there? The only related memory I have in that regard is the teachers would commonly give light "BIRTHDAY spankings" to students. One swat per year of age but then always at least one more "to grow on." It was all in fun, but, still, I almost always kept my own birthday a secret from my teachers! But there was one and only one I ever confessed to and that was indeed Ms. Miller who gave me my one and only birthday spanking when I was in about 4th or 5th grade. And I hadn't even told her until we were all on our way out of the class - thinking it was too late for her to get me - but she surprised me! Obviously she did have a sense of humor which was no doubt one of the reasons I always liked her so much.

[grumpyoldlady]

Mrs. Knoll had a heart of gold, and never used her whip...just stood there and swung it around to make us think she would use it. And they only times I saw her use the paddles was to give the gentlest of swats to a bottom...more embarassing than painful. But her eraser throwing was super accurate. She sometimes let one fly at someone who wasn't paying attention or fell asleep. No harm done, just some chalk dust on the head or clothing. I don't think corporal punishment was allowed, and Mrs. Knoll's swats with the paddle were so gentle they really weren't punishment, other than they psychological aspect of it. We were all scared of her, but loved her at the same time.

They didn't have hall monitors when I was in school. Classes changed in lines...boys and girls in separate lines.

[EMG]

...and the floors were [[and still are) patterned like checkerboards with alternating brown and black squares, and whenever the lines paused somewhere, students were to stand only on black squares so that the line was spaced evenly.

We never found out what would happen if anybody ever stood on a brown square. Maybe Mom's back would break - or maybe you'd get smacked by a flying eraser, hm....?

Another memory that got jogged by a previous post where you mentioned lockers. I remember that Locker #45 was reserved as the "lost and found."

Hall monitors didn't have anything to do with the change of classes. They were just students who were posted like sentries, at least one in each hallway, that would stop and question students who were walking in the halls. Any student walking through the halls during class time was required to have a hall pass, and they were usually on their way to or from the lavatory.. Then of course if anyone was without a pass they would be sent back to where they came from and/or reported to a teacher depending on the circumstances. Hall monitors served during library period, which is why the librarian Ms. Horvath was in charge of them. Since library involved reading books, the hall monitor would just take their book with them. Since most of the time monitoring really didn't involve anything since only a few if any people were ever in the hall during the whole period, most of the time was just spent reading - which is what the monitor would have been doing in the library anyway.

[grumpyoldlady]

Are you familiar with the room behind the auditorium stage? Well, the end of it had a door that opened into the hallway near the office, and the Lost and Found table was set up there and the door opened a couple of days a week so students could look for their lost stuff. It was manned by a "Future Teacher" student.

I really liked those big semi-circular granite wash sinks in the lavatories that had that rubber rail on the bottom that you stepped on to make the water come out. We used to take paper towel and plug up the drain and see how full we could get it before an adult came in. Those things were big enough to take a bath in!

One thing I can't remember for anything. Once when they were painting one of my classrooms, the teacher took us upstairs to the room used for Band. I can't remember how we got there, or if it was accessible from the main hallways on the second floor. It was a little tiny room, NOT the one used for Speech which was in between two other rooms,...this room was on a corner.

[EMG]

I remember the Speech room 208 located in between Ms. Van Ryn's room 209 and Mr. Dyer-Hurdon's room 210 very well as I took speech classes with Mrs. Grant there for some time.

I had forgotten the Band room, but now that you mention it I think I do remember. It was up in the corner somewhere between the Lakepoint Door stairwell and room 211, right? Like you, I might have seen it once and if we are indeed thinking of the same room, I'm sure it was accessed through a regular door from the hallway [[obviously we didn't climb up through a trap door using the rope from Gym!) but perhaps the door didn't have a window like most classrooms and/or we used it so seldom we were more inclined to assume it was the door to a closet than a classroom. It's amazing how one can attend school in the same building for almost a decade, yet have so little or no exposure to a particular area or room that just to have the opportunity to enter it once becomes the memorable event of a lifetime! That's why I enjoyed those air raid drills so much. I would have loved to have been able to just explore the whole basement without being limited to just a single space marked for my own class! Or even some of those lesser-accessed regular rooms upstairs for that matter!

As for the restrooms, you have confirmed for me then that the girls' rooms were fairly similar to the boys' rooms! We had exactly the same sinks you describe. Though given what I'm sure some of the boys no doubt used those sinks for, I wouldn't recommend attempting to take a bath in them!

I vaguely remember lost and found items being put out on a table...but now that you mention it I do remember having occasional opportunities to look for stuff. And thank you for mentioning the "Future Teachers." I had forgotten all about them. Didn't they have special arm bands or patches that they wore?

I honestly don't remember that side door into the Auditorium stage. But from the pictures I posted of the Office hallway in the other thread, I can certainly at least better picture it. Once again, how limited we were within a building we attended for so many years - to have doors that we walked by on a daily basis without knowing exactly what was behind them!

[EMG]

Or - wait a minute - now I'm really not sure about that band room anymore. Could it be that it was up above the Roxbury Door area - perhaps above the gym and/or auditorium? I'm really not sure at all about this now - whether the following is a real memory or something manufactured - but what I do remember was real was that to the east side of the gym, there was a side room with some lockers. Students wouldn't actually change clothes, but would change just SHOES from street shoes to gym shoes, which were kept in the lockers in that room to the east of the gym. I don't believe that there was a regular staircase at the Roxbury door directly accessible from the halls that students regularly used between classes, like the West Casino staircase or the Lakepoint staircase, but I'm sure that for fire regulation purposes there must have been another staircase near Roxbury. Could it be that that staircase was accessible from the "locker room" or was simply a "hidden behind a door" staircase somewhere in the general area of the east side of the gym, that then led up to just a one-room nook [[that is to say, band room) in the northeast corner of the building on the second floor?

[[I'm now thinking that random thought I had about "climbing the rope up from the gym" wasn't just a random joke but originated in the fiber of an actual memory....)

[Norwalk]

My Brother in Law currently teaches at Carleton and has for the past 10 years at least.

[grumpyoldlady]

EMG....Yes....I believe the band room was on the Roxbury side. That small room off the gym had the teacher's desks in it, and a cot for ill students to lay down on. I do believe there were a couple of lockers in there. It wasn't normally accessed by students unless they needed to use the cot.

Norwalk.....PLEASE ask your brother-in-law where the access to the band room we speak of is located. It may not be used for band any more.

I just looked at my Carleton photos and if you look at the photo of the Roxbury entrance, the 3 windows to the right of the door, or at least the top two, were in that band room....I think, lol.

[EMG]

I don't remember there being a cot in there when I went there. I would have thought anyone ill would simply have been sent to the office to wait for family to pick them up and take them home [[back in those days it wasn't nearly as common to have both parents working!!!)

"To the left right of the Roxbury door?" So which was it? I think it would have to have been to the right, making it north of the Roxbury door. If I'm right, then the band room was up over that east-of-the-gym, north-of-the-Roxbury-door area, and if so there must have been a staircase originating at or near that locker/cot room that went up there. If on the other hand it was to the left, that would have put the band room over the auditorium, which I REALLY don't think it was.

UNLESS....there was an overhead projector room over the rear of the auditorium [[as commonly seen in movie theatres), in which case such a room would logically have been connected to the band room if there was one in that area. But as I'm reasonably sure that movies, if any, which were shown in the auditorium were shown from reel-to-reel projectors on carts on the aisle of the auditorium, I don't think that was the case. I really think the band room was on the second floor, over the gym locker room and to the north.

This is now starting to sound like a game of Clue. Can anyone prove me wrong?

[grumpyoldlady]

Yes, I meant to the RIGHT of the door.

I am part of a group that is planning a reunion for the June '63 class. A letter was sent to the principal requesting a tour of the building, but there has been no response. If the tour does happen, although I won't be able to go, I will ask someone to clarify the location of the old band room.

You are right...there was no projection room. The movie projector sat on a cart near the rear of the auditorium...in the middle where some seats were missing if I recall correctly.

[EMG]

Ok, now that that's settled, let's not let this die out! We've dredged up a lot of great old memories and need to keep it going with some other thought-starters! What else can we think up?

- The orange "E" or "hand" signs that people put up in windows signifying students could go to those houses for help in the event of problems encountered to and from school?

- Particular sights or businesses encountered along the walking routes?

- Favorite subjects and/or particularly memorable classes and classroom experiences?

Let's keep those thinking wheels churning!

I remember one of my favorites was science with Ms. Franke, especially the rare occasion when we got to go out into the conservatory [[pictured well in my photo of Carleton Between Casino Doors).

Sometimes some of the best learning occurred when teachers talked about things other than purely the curriculum. I remember Mrs. Theresa Wells, my homeroom and math teacher in third grade, one day telling us all about her daughter, who was twelve years old at the time and an insulin-dependent diabetic, and what she went through in terms of monitoring and self-injecting and so forth. We got quite a lesson in the ramifications, care, and treatment of that disease, and at the time it never even seemed like learning because it was all a fascinating story.