In loving praise of our mothers and teachers
I’ve been pondering the subject of this column. An obvious choice was Mother’s Day, the day I’m writing it. This kind of bothered me though. I’m not much of a sentimentalist, at least on the surface — indiscriminate hugging or an obligatory “love you” at the end of every communication with a family member isn’t my thing. I just figure they should know. My mom, however, died relatively young and was a great positive influence in my life so maybe I should at least posthumously hug her and tell her I love her as well as all the other mothers in my life. There, that’s off my chest.
I also was pretty sure Mike Wolcott would write something on the subject and sure enough when I opened the Sunday E-R his thoughtful column appeared. If this job paid anything I could be accused of currying favor, but no worries. Facing the prospect of redundancy and old news I read on and a couple of things caught my eye. I hardly ever look at political cartoons, but Sunday’s featured a mom in the Armed Forces and buried in an article about the Supreme Court was a reference to low polling numbers regarding trust in public education.
My mom was an English teacher, as is my wife, and an independent and talented person. Both taught at Chico High and I observed how hard they worked and how much they cared. This goes for the great majority of teachers and educators
I’ve known.
A bit of history, my mother Marjorie Matthews was born in Chico in 1909 and grew up on Woodland Avenue across from the One Mile. She attended Chico public schools, UC Berkeley, and USC and returned to Chico to teach English and married my dad. She loved literature and the theater. In the 50’s and 60’s she traveled all over California doing solo dramatic readings of Broadway hits. I was at an early age used to hearing her practice sordid dialogue from the plays of Tennessee Williams and others. As far as I can tell this didn’t hurt me a bit, although between this, ranch work and orneriness my language can be a little salty, ask the neighbors.
In 1939, she traveled alone from Chico by train to New York and on to London by ship. This was a big deal for a single woman. She kept a detailed journal of her adventures which my daughter typed up. It’s a delight to read. One of my favorites is her being kicked out of the Algonquin Hotel in New York for being a single woman sitting at the bar. (She was attractive and I guess they were concerned about her profession.) She was more offended, however, that a Manhattan cost 50 cents. (I went back about 10 years ago and they were $17.)
She was my best teacher, and I had some good ones in Chico public schools and a great public university. She read me the Classics, Greek myths, Dickens etc. at breakfast and lunch — we lived only a couple of blocks from Parkview school and I would often go home for one of my favorites like lamb chops. (Did I mention that I was an only child?) She taught me to respect all people. It was normal at holiday dinners to have guests from all walks of life who had nowhere else to go, although Chico didn’t have a lot of diversity at the time. She also had the presence to kick me out of Chico, my comfort zone, for a while so I could become aware that there was more out there.
This brings me back to Mother’s Day, the cartoon, and public education.
I was very lucky. Most mothers now don’t have the luxury of staying home and catering to spoiled little guys like I was. They have jobs and a more complex world to deal with which in turn puts more pressure on the education system, public and private, to take up the slack, including in many cases part of the parental role. I’m a public school fan and believe that kids and our society will benefit from being thrown together and taught reality. I also realize that there is controversy about how and what kids are being taught. When I was growing up it was a slam dunk when a dispute developed between teacher and student, the teacher was right. Now, for good reason, this is not always the case. From what I’ve observed, however, it is best for parents to talk to the teacher or administrator before they assume the worst. Our democracy, more than ever, needs our public schools to continue to produce good citizens who will be good parents.
Hope this was OK mom, love you.