Who's Your Favorite Teacher?

Sister Katherine Howard teaching at a pre-COVID
Oblate Sunday, taken by Sister Carleen Schomer

Who's your favorite teacher?

That’s been an easy question all my life. In second grade, it was Miss Brunner, who coaxed me out of the cloak room when I was a shy girl in a new school. In third grade, it was Mrs. Howard because she was pretty and her first name was Marjorie, the same as mine. In grade six, Mrs. Armstrong let me sit at her desk and read aloud to the whole class for a half hour after lunch every day. She even let me choose the book—LASSIE, COME HOME.

Miss Jones, my high school English teacher for three years, and Mrs. Patterson, the speech teacher, helped me grow in self-confidence. Mr. Sheffer gave me a barely-passing grade in chemistry (which I had failed) so that I could proceed to college. In college, Dr. Meyer had the same last name as mine. She read my first freshman composition aloud to the class and said, “This is an A paper.” She also nursed me through homesickness.

Decades later, I have learned from several of the sisters at Saint Benedict’s Monastery in classes, retreats and presentations. It was Sister Laureen Virnig who first took my hand to guide me along the path to becoming an oblate. Sister Mara Faulkner was my writing mentor for a time, challenging me to go a little deeper.

Now that I’m unable to see any teachers in person, I am more aware of the lessons found in nature. The natural world has always inspired thinkers and writers to find great truths outdoors or at least out the window. During the pandemic, we have found beauty and hope in the spring and summer. Then we marveled at a splendid array of fall colors and an abundant harvest. Now may we look for the lessons of winter—bare trees letting in light even on gray days, buds sealed tight but still visible, and sparkling fresh snowfall to blanket our sorrows. This is the time to trust our greatest Teacher to reveal what we might learn from the season of winter.

Marge Lundeen, OblSB