Ruth Loy

I had a male teacher for grades 5 and 6 who was highly eccentric (and not gay - he was a family man without a whiff of scandal). He had old printing presses in the classroom and we learned about how books and newspapers were printed - by printing our own pages with movable type we set ourselves. He showed us violent war movies. He had WW2 and Vietnam veterans come in and give graphic talks. One guy talked about his baptism of fire in Japan - he said something like ‘I jumped into the foxhole and killed two Japs with my pistol - I’m glad I bought that pistol off a guy before the fight because I might not be here if I hadn’t.’ The teacher would tells us the casualty figures of WW1 and 2 and sometimes start crying. He also taught us chess, and he spotted kids who were good in math. He gave me math problems well in advance of 6th grade, and ensured I was pushed up a level in middle school. He was tolerant of wild boy behavior - including boys throwing things at each other across the classroom. Only a few years later I heard he had to stop showing the war movies, the veterans weren’t allowed to give talks. He retired shortly thereafter - he was getting old anyway. But this kind of man used to teach elementary school. I don’t know why he wanted to do it - but he was good at it. And I don’t think there are many like him in public schools now - and that isn’t good for boys.