A different viewpoint of the effect of the substitute teacher, Ms. Dorothy Zbornak, from 'The Golden Girls'. She impacted at least one student in a profound way.
Great. Wonderful. It was Tuesday. The day? March something or other and the weather was extremely crappy. And I hate Mondays so yesterday was horrible. My brother finished off the pop tarts I wanted for breakfast. I even hid them in the oven in hopes he wouldn't find them.
I hadn't done my history homework and just wanted to be done with school. We didn't do anything fun. It was boring, we weren't allowed to have conversations in class and I never wanted to be there.
Class started that day with a review of World War II in too much detail for me. Our teacher, Art Ruben had been out sick. He has never been married and doesn't have any kids. In other words, he doesn't relate to his students very well. Plus, seeing as none of us wanted to be in class, we talked about what things we could do in the class to annoy the substitute.
Once we entered the class we saw her. Her name was written on the board, Ms. Zbornak. Who has a last name like that? Her first name was probably odd too. My buddy Kip said under his breath, "Yes, a substitute, I'll have some fun with this one". Kip was the kind of kid who didn't show up to school with anything, left with nothing too. He always was asking people if he could borrow their textbooks or pens. It got quite annoying. I was just going to keep my mouth shut today. I was just ready for class to begin and be over with. I did wonder, though, who the teacher would be.
I guess I really didn't mind a sub like Kip did. Unlike him, I wasn't going to go out of my way to make her job harder. Mr. Ruben was kind of strange. He didn't have any pets, any kids, a wife, nothing. Most of his energy was put into his teaching. I think Kip liked annoying him the most because teaching was what he lived for.
We heard the clicking of heels outside in the hallway. None of our teachers wore heels so we knew it was her. She was quite intimidating. She was kind of older, really tall, and seemed pretty smart. She stood in front of the class and said "Good Morning". No one responded; we were all staring at our desks or staring at her. After the third time I think eight of us said it back to her. She said, "I am Ms. Zbornak". Did she say miss or Ms.; we asked her to clarify. Maybe there was hope for Mr. Ruben. She didn't seem so keen on us trying to get dirt on her personal life. She got real short and then began the lesson.
By the end of the lesson everyone was enthralled with this teacher. She had the kind of personality that you admire. She came down to our level in that she didn't preach to us but she discussed our work with us. That was the type of teaching that made me enjoy class. That Monday changed my outlook on my future and I considered being a teacher. Instead of being treated like I not know anything Ms. Zbornak helped me feel important. She was passionate, considerate and above all a gentle human being. All of us, including Kip, were actually there a couple minutes after the bell rang; she was that good. Her personality came through; she told us about the three women she lives with, including her mom. Their names were pretty old fashioned too-Rose, Blanche, and Sophia. They go to all these events and talk about their issues with life. I hope they visit school when we put on our performance of "The Sky is Falling" in May. I will definitely be in the audience.