Mrs. Ball – One of a kind Teacher
‘A teacher affects eternity: he can never tell where his influence stops.’ –Henry Adams Education: The latin root of the word education means “to lead out” As you may know from other posts on my website I grew up on the little island of Grenada one of the Windward Islands in the West Indies. Mom home schooled myself and my brother for my early childhood but eventually when I was about 9 or 10 I think, I was enrolled in the primary school, Westmoreland. I was initially placed in 3rd form which I think was a year behind for my age. I guess overall I did well but my maths was a little behind. The school decided to move me into 4th form but I had to get tutoured after school by Mrs. Ball in Maths. I don’t remember much about the what I learned in the tutouring other than it being Algebra and that it involved me standing beside her desk as she instructed me. Imagine being new to a school, then new to a more advanced class and then learning that somehow letters have some mathematical meaning. Learning this from someone you are terrified of -well it was a do or die Maths experience for me. I wound up doing quite well in Maths overall after I got the hang of Algebra and Mrs. Ball really was instrumental in my understanding and appreciation of the subject. Every student of Mrs. Ball’s was affected for eternity. She may have terrified us in our youth but I think we all appreciated and respected her immensely as we have aged to adults. Mrs Ball was a teacher with an overload of personality and I doubt that there was a single student who wasn’t terrified of her and simply wanted to do...
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