Mr. Robbins: Guerrilla Educator

This week is not only Children's Book Week, but also Teacher Appreciation Week. Don't you find it fitting that these two recognitions should coincide in the same week? Both children's literature and teachers have an undeniable impact on us on our road to becoming human beings. I know I am not alone when I say that I am fortunate enough to look back on my formative years and count the wonderful teachers I've had, and think about the positive influence they've had on my life. Although some may have been more influential than others, I am grateful for all of them. However, if I had to choose one special teacher that continues to shine in my memories, it would be my sixth grade teacher, Mr. Robbins.

What it is about sixth grade? It seems that a lot of people I talk to have amazing stories about their sixth grade teacher. Maybe it is that age of transition children of eleven or twelve occupy during that time. It is surely a time of awakening. We are dealing with new feelings, new ideas and new challenges. It seems, for me, that sixth grade was the exact time when the world of imagination was introduced to the world of intellect, and I could have had no better guide through that convergence than Mr. Robbins.

Mr. Robbins was one of those teachers that came of age in the sixties. He had a beard and played guitar. He led us in folky songs about Sugar Mountain, Kingston Town and leaving on Jet Planes. He would read aloud to us after lunch and used wonderful voices for the different characters. (He did a great Gurgi from the Lloyd Alexander fantasy Taran Wanderer series!) He was passionate about turning on young minds. He taught us about the world and opened our eyes to other cultures and political systems. He was as passionate about science and math as he was about language and the arts. He encouraged critical thinking as much as he cultivated creativity. He had a clear passion for ideas and a curiosity that was infectious.

Mr. Robbins was also a guerrilla educator who tricked us into learning. Not out of necessity, but out of sheer joy for teaching. Once he divided the classroom up into small seating groups and invented a currency called "Fatons" with which he rewarded individuals and groups for good behavior and class participation. He then allowed each group to use it's wealth to purchase up valued items in the classroom such as the sink, the Apple 2E, the pencil sharpener and charge tolls as we saw fit. The baldfaced capitalism-run-amok that ensued was enough to make any government regulator snap his pencil and go home. On another occasion, Mr. Robbins conspired with a particular student who had shown a history of butting heads with authority and staged a shouting match with him in front of the class which ended with the student running from the classroom in tears. The student quietly returned to his seat only seconds later for a writing assignment about the incident we all just witnessed. In the assignment we explored the power that perception has over memory. The list goes on. He was a mad scientist and his antics as an educator live on in my memories to this day.

In a world like ours where in some corners of it, a new thought, let alone books or schools, is as scarce as any other resource, we should be profoundly grateful for the education that has been offered to us. So, if you had a teacher like Mr. Robbins, or even if you have spent enough time in a school to know basic reading and arithmetic (don't ask me about my arithmetic!), say thank you!

Josh

(Mr. Robbins is the grown man on the far right.)