Readers Write In About the Teachers Who Most Inspired Them

Recently I invited readers to write me about the teachers whom they recall as particularly inspiring or helpful.

In response, the letters were numerous and enthusiastic, and some were genuinely moving. Here are some of the highlights.

Ann Bourman, a history teacher at Palms Junior High School, said her career was inspired by Blanche Bettington, a government teacher at Hamilton High School.

“She taught us to argue many aspects of constitutional law, and insisted that we read magazines containing a variety of political viewpoints,” Bourman explained.

“She hoped we would become devoted to the ideas of Thomas Jefferson, the common man, democracy . . . the Bill of Rights.”

Bettington also became a part of history herself. “She had to face insane accusations in front of a California un-American activities committee,” Bourman said, “but was found guilty only of excellent teaching and pushing students to think for themselves.”

And at age 90, Bettington is still apparently teaching by example--Bourman spotted her at a peace march during the Gulf War.

Eric Posin, an attorney in Beverly Hills, credits Ernest Buchholz, an economics professor at Santa Monica College, for providing the needed challenge that has led to Posin’s success.

“In my early academic years, school never really interested me,” Posin recalled. “I never displayed any real drive or desire to excel.”

But when other students warned him about Buchholz’s reputed toughness, Posin responded by enrolling for a good challenge.

Although Buchholz lived up to his reputation as a demanding educator, “he was one of the best teachers I ever had,” Posin said.

“In many ways I feel this man was a major factor in my further success in school and accomplishment in becoming an attorney.”

Ruth D. Davis of Los Angeles recalled her English teacher, Nancy Jane Montgomery, from her junior high school years in Pittsburgh.

“She was the first and only adult at that time in my life who treated me with kindness, respect, dignity, and attention,” Davis said.

And although English was not spoken in Davis’ home and reading material was almost nonexistent there, she has been “a voracious reader for 50 years because of (Montgomery’s) inspiration,” she said.

In addition, “(I) cannot imagine that I would have done anything more with my life than my peers still in Pittsburgh . . . had she not paid special attention to the skinny, ill-kept, unlovely child that I was.”

Alice M. Carroll, a retired kindergarten teacher in Inglewood, learned about ethnic pride from Ezekiel Ridley, the principal of her “segregated black school of the 1930s and ‘40s,” she said.

Ridley was “very stern with discipline,” Carroll wrote, “but instilled such pride in our race and culture.”

For example, “we always sang what we called the Negro National Anthem, ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing,’ before our assemblies,” she said.

Marty Delman of West Los Angeles wrote about Katherine Carr, his journalism teacher at Los Angeles High School.

“Miss Carr taught us how to read a newspaper: what was left out that we might want to know, and why weren’t the pertinent questions asked?”

Delman and his classmates also learned the value of studying world events from all possible angles.

“We had better been reading in depth; her questions, always with a smile, went directly to the heart of the matter.”

Sherry Terzian of Los Angeles recalled “a giant of a teacher, Prof. John Livingston Lowe of the Harvard University Department of English.”

Terzian said that, although Lowe was small in stature, “he seemed to take a giant step upward with his fire and intensity” when teaching.

“I also recall his admonition: ‘A little knowledge is a dangerous thing . . . (so) dig deep,’ ” Terzian said.

Next week I’ll share some more readers’ memories of special teachers.