Mr. Reading, My Reading Teacher - World Teachers' Day Is October 5

October 5 is set aside as World Teachers’ Day, a time to honor educators around the globe. Don Mathis remembers one teacher who made a difference in his life.

One day Mr. Reading told us how to deal with a bully. “You stand up to him,” he said. “If he hits you, hit him back.”

A week or two later, the guy behind me kept thumping the back of my head. I told him to stop but every time Mr. Reading had his back turned, the guy would do it again.

So, remembering the lesson from the week before, I turned around and smacked the bully. It was a loud fleshy smack, the whole class heard it. The jerk was about to rain down punches on me but Mr. Reading broke it up.

The teacher asked why I did that and I told him his parable about bullies. He smiled at himself and resolved never to teach that lesson again.

But Mr. Reading (an apt name for an English teacher if there ever was one) taught many other lessons.

He had a speed-reading film projector, and every week he would increase the words per minute the text would flash by. Mr. Reading would have us diagram sentences so they made sense. He taught us about foreshadowing, symbolism, and other literary devices.

I think his sixth grade English class is where I learned to love to read. The Lottery (by Shirley Jackson) was an apt metaphor for the draft – which was looming just ahead. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (by Ambrose Bierce) gave me a glimpse of the realities of war.

I did not see the writing on the wall then, but six years later the draft introduced me to the realities of the Vietnam War. And I remembered Mr. Reading.

I learned as much about life in his class as I did about English composition. Thank you, Mr. Reading!