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The Hero-Teacher Series

Mrs. Rorai

School: Fraser High School, Michigan

Background

Dear Mrs. Rorai, November 14, 2005

This letter is a long time in coming, although I have frequently considered what I would say over the years. I was a student both in your humanities course, in 1997, co-taught with Mr. Pascaretti and Mr. Vechinski, as well as your honors composition course, which I took in my graduating year of 1998. After continuing my education through a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, I can confidently say that your humanities course was the first moment in my educational career where I experienced learning for the sheer joy of studying something I was motivated to learn about, and it has remained the most powerful educational experience in my memory.

I first realized what a truly remarkable teacher you are when we began to study ancient Roman art and architecture, and you shared with us not only your personal life experiences, but also a great many truths of history that had long remained hidden in my educational experience. I noted then that you were trying to teach us the world and its colorful stories, embracing all of the scandal, beauty, and rich history that it encompasses.

I knew during that year that I would long treasure the stories you shared with us, but it was not until I went abroad myself in college that I fully appreciated the enormity of what you had given me. I had the opportunity to study abroad in France as part of my degree, and during this time in Europe I traveled to many of the places we had discussed in our course and saw many of the works of art that had been our subjects. As I was exploring the Egyptian wing of the Louvre, I wandered into a gallery of statues of the Egyptian gods. I looked around haphazardly, and almost out of nowhere, when I looked upon one of the statues, the name “Anubis” popped into my head. I walked over to the statue, and sure enough, upon the nameplate was written “Anubis.” In school we learn an enormous amount of facts, and even many that we find interesting slip out of our memories as we pursue other interests and move on to other courses. In fact, I think it is truly rare to hold on to much factual information for the long term unless it is our specialization. And yet here I was in the basement of the Louvre knowing these gods and their stories by heart.

My time in Europe was filled with these experiences. I gazed lovingly at Winged Victory recalling its story of mysterious origins, I wandered the halls of the Uffizi gallery spouting stories to my traveling partners about Botticelli and his affection for Simonetta Vespucci, and I reveled in being able to share what I knew of the symbols and stories of the art we saw. I even wandered the streets of Rome labeling the columns as Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. This knowledge not only stayed with me, but it enriched every moment of my experience and made this time in Europe truly fulfilling. I was able to navigate these great halls and intimidating galleries with a personal bond to the history I was connecting with. I owe this to you, and the window you opened for me in that high school humanities course. I regard my time in Europe as the most important time of my life in terms of self-realization and personal growth, and this journey was facilitated by the passion you instilled in me through your teaching.

I could easily end this letter here, but it would be doing you an injustice, as in reality you touched me once again as a teacher in your honors composition class. I had always loved to write as a child, and had often longed to be an author of my own books. This passion had been squelched through most of my high school career, as teachers suffocated my creative and experimental writing strategies and forced me into a conforming stylistic box. This entire attitude did not exist in your classroom, where for the first time in my life a teacher told me that truly great writers challenge the norm and stretch their language. I found my voice once again through the work I wrote under your tutelage, and I regard that class as the saving grace that kept me from coming to hate what I had once loved.

Students know many teachers throughout their years in school, some whom they love, some whom they hate. There are those that they will always remember vividly, and those that are mere shadows in their memory. Some teachers give you knowledge, others give you faith. But it is rare to find a teacher that can give you what is most important in education, and often in life: a passion to know and to experience. Your remarkable teaching gave me these gifts, and has enriched my life long after my time in your classroom. Thank you Mrs. Rorai, from the bottom of my heart. You are the very best of teachers.

Submitted by: Karen Langdon