Next, my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Duvall, was particularly influential in continuing to grow my curiosity for the world of travel and for learning. Mrs. Duvall encouraged us (students) to rake through the school libraries on a vast variety of social studies and do reports. Aside from American history, she taught us English language & literature related topics. Most importantly, she also taught us African studies. Mrs. Duvall and her husband had both traveled together three times to Africa (north, south, and central).
Therefore, Mrs. Duvall was not only teaching us--she was living out a lifelong curiosity for learning and travel--Right before my eyes! Moreover, although Mrs. D. and Mr. D. had graying hair, they were very young at heart. I recall Mr. D picking up Mrs. D. on his Harley one day after school. Cool!!!! I'm sure that having Mrs. D. as a teacher enabled me to envision a future that was not U.S.-centric at a relatively impressionable time in my life. At the same time, she had taught us American and African history at the same time, enabling us to contrast different worlds and experience for ourselves. In short, at a very early age we students were being invited to compare history and culture--raising our sense of curiosity and leading us to ask "Why do we do it this way?" or "Why do they do it that way?" or "Why not do it some other way?"
MRS. G
Finally, my 6th-grade Social Studies teacher was Mrs. Gilani. It should be noted that Mrs. G. was born in Brazil but was of German parentage. Therefore, she was the first multi-racial person I got to know intimately as a student. Mrs. G. taught us Latin American studies and since she had grown up in South America, the experience and research were very authentic.
Mrs. Gilani encouraged me as a presenter and appropriately criticized my writing. Moreover, she taught us to do research on longer projects. For example, Mrs. G. had us right and present reports on various countries in Latin America. She had us write several embassies, the United Nations, and tourist organizations while we were collecting information on our research projects. This enabled me at a relatively early age to begin feeling comfortable writing American government authorities and American congressmen (and even presidents) over the next decade , i.e. before email made such hand written letters passà ©. By the time I would attend university, I was already traveling from Kansas to Washington, D.C. to lobby congress on education and on American's ill-devised policies in Latin America (i.e. in the early 1980s).
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