In Praise of Teachers©

Dennis LegerThat spring night, my friend Bill parked on the tracks in front of a speeding freight train.He was a sweet and sensitive man who chose to end his pain and the life that hadbetrayed him. Bill was the 6

grade teacher at Marine Elementary School during the1970s and 1980s, a magic time for the school.Days of gladnessYears of gleeLike torrents of springThey flee, they flee.

…Russian poet

Have you ever wished you could freeze a time and place? Keep at least the memory of itever alive? I mean the colors, sounds and events, but mostly the people from a certaintime in your life? If only we could have sprinkled some golden dust to keep the world asit was then, when it was in perfect balance.I enjoyed such a golden time. My wife and I raised our three children in a small rivertown in Minnesota called Marine On St. Croix. We have been gone nearly ten years nowso only our memories preserve our love for the town and its characters.For me, remembering is not sugar coated by nostalgia but grounded in a unique view of reality. Serving as the Zoning Administrator for four years and as Mayor for eight years,

I had a close look at the town’s strengths and its imperfections

. My memory is notclouded with rose-colored illusions. I lived through the divisions and the contentiousness

that challenged everyone’s character. And from time to time, in crisis, I saw the strength,

community spirit, affection and friendliness that brought a young couple, my wife and I,to the town in the first place.Let me tell you first about Marine On St. Croix and its surroundings. The St. Croix is anational Wild and Scenic River. It forms much of the boundary between Minnesota andWisconsin. Its valley is deep and heavily forested.When Minnesota was still a territory, there was an ocean of mature pine on the banks of the St. Croix waiting to be exploited. With just that in mind, early settlers from Marine,Illinois, travelling by steamboat and canoe, explored the river for waterpower to run asawmill. A likely stream falling from a steep hillside became the site of Marine Mills in1838. Today, in a riverside ravine, just below the General Store and the Village Hall isthe site of the first commercial sawmill in Minnesota territory. It operated profitably forabout 50 years until the age of steam.During that time, thousands of Scandinavian immigrants arrived at Marine Mills bysteamboat. Some stayed to work at the sawmill or in the pineries, but most had beenfarmers in the old country and they walked into the wilderness to settle the land and to

farm. They are the main source of Minnesota’s Scandinavian heritage

well portrayed in

“The Emigrants” a Golden Globe winning film starring Liv Ulman and Max

Von Sydow.

Part of the town’s incorporated area includes Wm. O’Brien

State Park. It is largelyundeveloped except for a trail system, campgrounds and picnic area.The village hall was built in 1870. It was a large structure for the time sided with pineclapboards and topped by a bell tower to call out the volunteer fire company that wasthen located on the first floor. (Now the County branch library) There was a squeakywooden staircase to the second floor, the site of public events including the annual

Firemen’s Ball and an Oktoberfest celebration. The hardwood floor was cleared for

dancing and a band played on the stage under a canvas curtain with an old oil painting of a St. Croix River scene.Marine has its elementary school, K through 6

grade. Junior high and high school arelocated in the county seat, Stillwater, twelve miles to the south. For some reason, over theyears, Marine Elementary has attracted the best, most dedicated teachers. That is not tosuggest that other schools have inferior teachers, but you will learn here about someMarine teachers, and one in particular, who far exceeded the best in other places. If

Marine teachers of that time were “average” then no one should ever have to worry about

our

country’s

schools.One of our best teachers was Bill. This is about him. I never asked, but I suppose his 6

grade teaching job brought Bill and his young family to Marine On St. Croix. After hismilitary service in Germany, he would have been drawn to our quaint old village. Many

of the town’s white clapboard structures are designated historic sites. And the St

. Croix, aNational Wild and Scenic River, is sometimes called the Hudson of the West.

On first seeing the village hall, Bill would have said, “Wouldn’t it be great if…” He

would have been able to see the possibilities for his class and he would follow through.Year after year, he brought the magic of musical comedy to his class and to the stage of our antique village hall. It was an amateur 6

grade production, certainly, but for three

night’s running every spring, downtown Marine On St. Croix, Minneso

ta was packedwith cars of grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins who came for the performance.

They came to see a different play each year, adaptations of “Peter Pan” “The Wizard of Oz” “Tom Sawyer” “Annie” and others.

Although a labor of love, the annual play took hours of extra work. For all of his effort,you would have thought Bill a devotee of the theatre. He may have been, but the thingsthat drove him were teaching and expanding the horizons of his students. I can almosthear him say to his cl

ass, “Wouldn’t it be fun if…?” With his guidance, his class wrote an

adaptation of the chosen play then did the props, the acting, and the singing and dancing.The kids were allowed or encouraged to choose popular music, taking liberties with thelyrics wh

en necessary. I remember, for example, a Neal Diamond song, “Turn on Your Heart Light” characterized the Tin Man in their production of The Wizard of Oz.

3Bill told me he wanted to find a way to have battery-powered heart lights blink when thekids sang th

e song. We didn’t know how to do it. I wish I could have helped.It was a stroke of genius to involve the next grade, getting them interested in “show business.” The 5

grade class was the chorus, accompanied on the piano by a dynamicmusic teacher, Dianne R. Her students always sang with great enthusiasm because sheallowed them to sing their favorites. Thanks to Dianne, the children of Marine Schoolalways loved to belt out a tune. I mean they were never shy about it. They opened theirmouths and sang!Our oldest daughter was Wendy in Peter Pan. She is now an elementary teacher inMichigan. Our son shared the role of the tin man in Oz and our youngest daughter playeda singing and dancing role in Tom Sawyer. In between, there was a great rendition of

“Annie.” Alicia S

. was a great Annie. She is now a construction manager in Californiaand a mom.No one, not even the former actors, can say exactly what was learned from putting on a

musical comedy, or quantify how much was learned. Most of Bill’s student

s never setfoot upon another stage. Most of them did not go into teaching. With so many choicesand influences ahead of them, how many young people remember and appreciate theirgrade school experiences?Whether the kids knew it or not, this was a magic time for Marine School. Mrs. J, akindly grandmother from nearby Scandia, taught Kindergarten. Bill taught 6

grade. Inbetween were dedicated teachers who seemed to love what they were doing. Dianne R.with music. Patti E.

’s boundary waters trips. Berni

e A., principal and 5

grade teacher,

who didn’t need a federal program to know that the gym should be open after school for

junior high kids coming back to town. And there were so many others!The rest of the story: We had met Bill and his wife socially on some other occasion. But

Bill came to us at a New Year’s Eve party on the second floor of our old village hall,“You have to go skiing now. You’ll both love it.

’ve borrowed some skis

for you.

”

We disentangled ourselves from the party and went down the squeaky stairs and grabbedour jackets to try cross-country skiing for the first time. There was plenty of snow under abright full moon and it was not very cold. It was an experience that Bill just had to shareso he guided a small group of us onto th

e trail that follows the river to Wm. O’Brien state

park a mile north of the village. The trail crosses tiny streams that spring from the side of the steep hills, under tall white pines, trees that had been too small to harvest 140 yearsearlier.On the trail he introduced us to a new 3

grade teacher, Patti E. She was to make her ownspecial contribution to Marine School. For many years she took her class on a spring trip

to Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area for a week of camping, canoeing and

portaging in the wilderness. Parents were nearly in tears when their babies, loaded downwith backpacks bigger than themselves, climbed onto the bus. School bus driver Art M.