Publication Date: Friday, January 21, 2005
ReaderWire
ReaderWire
(January 21, 2005)
Remembering Miss Turner
I write to honor a retired Paly social studies teacher who passed away this month. Her name is Florence Turner. Those of you who attended "Old Paly" have your own memories of "Miss Turner."
She taught for more years than she would openly admit. When I began my teaching career in 1969, she already had a long-established "no nonsense" reputation to be reckoned with. Her expertise was history, specializing in Far East Studies.
She lectured, required detailed maps, good spelling and penmanship. She punished tardiness and any other "monkey business." She organized seats in tidy rows and expected full attention, hard work and mutual respect.
Miss Turner's high standard of excellence was tempered by her recognition of student individuality. She expected each student to achieve his/her personal best. She set the bar high for the gifted, yet also had a patient, caring heart for the "late bloomers."
She devoted many after-school hours helping those students who got lost in the crowd. As a master teacher she witnessed educational fads come and go, but she stuck to her traditional methods. Her motto was to keep it simple: "Know your subject matter, clearly present it and believe in kids."
Like many challenging events in life, it often takes a few years in retrospect to truly appreciate a force of nature. The same was true for Paly graduates and Miss Turner. Each spring, I noticed returning young adults pause by her classroom door to "just chat," which was another way of saying thank you.
Let's remember her teaching excellence and her passion for sharing the world with young people.
Marilyn Mayo
Oxford Avenue, Palo Alto
A 'busted' Palo Alto?
Having relocated to Palo Alto 54 years ago, we were assured that infrastructure-services costs were covered by our property tax -- what's happened?
Seems everything in this town is busted -- schools, police, storm drains, and on goes the growing list of failures. I am truly disappointed.
Our attempts to make updates or improvements in our infrastructure exceed estimates and fail to meet expectations.
As for storm drains -- we have experienced both the 1995 and 1998 floods with no loss, fortunately, but I feel the vague shopping list has ignored several very important matters.
I will not support the storm-drain fee increase.
Elliott Bolter
Walter Hays Drive, Palo Alto
The 'B word'
I accept Joel Henner's assurance (Weekly, Jan. 19) that he was offended by the choice of what he delicately calls the "F word" rather than by the political sentiment on that bumper sticker he saw downtown.
However, my faith in the basic fairness of my fellow man/woman would have been considerably bolstered if Mr. Henner had assured us that he also wrote a letter last year condemning vice president Dick Cheney's much more violent use of that word to attack Sen. Patrick Leahy on the Senate floor.
Still, I am truly sorry that Mr. Henner was offended. I sympathize because I am frequently offended by the other four-letter word that appeared on that bumper sticker -- the "B word."
I mean no disrespect for George Bush, the man. If he were to invite me for a chat over a plate of nachos on a cafe patio some warm Texas evening, I would happily join him.
But having that man sitting in our highest office spreading lies on the evening news is the obscenity that I find offensive.
Thomas Daniell
Elsinore Drive, Palo Alto
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