"The Verb 'to be' Never Takes an Object"

 

"What we do not call education is more precious than that which we call so."

-- Emerson

We recently picked up a copy of this book at the local library sale, and it brought two thoughts to mind.  The first was, where you when I needed you?  If I had gone through this thoroughly in high school, how much easier and clearer those English classes would have been.  You need context to learn something.   Emerson again: "No man can learn what he has not preparation for learning."  

The second thought was, what moments or books or teachers stand out in your memories of formal education (after all these years)?  That one is easy for me.  Mrs. Neidermayer at Tuckahoe Junior High School, who said emphatically that if we took one thing from her English class it should be that rule about the verb 'to be.'  Her combination of sternness and self-deprecating humor endeared her to my immature little heart.  Although Mrs. N didn't know it, she also launched me on a lifelong (so far) interest in the origin and meaning of sur- and place-names when she said her own name meant "lowland farmer."  I had no idea at the time that names meant anything or so often have fascinating histories.  Go ahead, ask me what the -ez ending on Hispanic names means.

I also remember Dr. See and Dr. Blake fondly from college -- and almost no one else except for the Art History professor whose class was nothing but a treat.  Jansen's History of Art, the large and expensive textbook, was the only one of all those in four years I should have kept forever.  But, I had to sell it in order to eat that week.  At least one thing I had learned by then was to be pragmatic. 

The best textbook I do have, though, also acquired a few months ago at the library sale, is an 1871 volume, A Brief History of the United States.  I haven't seen all U.S. history texts, of course, but I doubt it has been surpassed.  Not many of us will re-read any of our old schoolbooks, ever, but I'll probably go through it again one of these days. 

So, Mrs. Neidermayer, wherever you are, know that your work was appreciated and lives on.