Four memories from four years—by Conor McWain ‘08

It’s been a long four years. But looking back, it seems like all of this happened yesterday...

Mrs. Martin’s biology class: her stories about skiing, dissecting the cat in formaldehyde, “idiot village” to describe the times some of us were always messing around. She was always friendly and laid back but not to the point where we didn’t learn. And when it got serious, the class would listen.

Mr. Woolley’s Spanish class: talks of NAFTA, the riots and the protests, how he hated the O.C., his no-nonsense attitude. How he’d been shot at. The class would turn into digressions but he always knew how to get it back on track when it was about anything other than NAFTA.

Brother Oxx’s Western Civ class: Brother Oxx always knew the smallest bits of history—he quoted by heart the scene where the Spartans held off the Persian army. Connections from real life. His talks of the Persian tortures. His knowledge of battles, how the Greeks defeated the Egyptians using shields to reflect sunlight into the eyes of the chariot horses.

Mr. Beatty: He always knew exactly what problem a student was having and pulled the example or answer out of the air to throw it on the board. He always knew who understood what and would give extra work to the kids who had it easy in the class. But it was never just work, we actually wanted to understand what he was talking about.