<Begin Segment 20>

TI: It sounds as a young teacher, this was an exciting time to, to be there, it sounds like.

RM: Oh, it was. It was. It was exciting to the class -- the curriculum at Renton was not staid, and there was constant innovation, change.

TI: Well, in fact, you mentioned something in terms of your teaching style, that you, you didn't want to be boring, you wanted to really engage the students.

RM: That's right.

TI: What were some ways that you did this?

RM: Oh, I would wear a, a red tie or a green tie, I would never wear dark clothing, never appear with drab stuff. I, I would go to any lengths, I would cut my hair, and just everything to in any way keep boredom from happening in the classroom. If I couldn't get the attention of the students, I'd go take the map, lower it, and let it, just let it wrap up to the top. I would do things like that, and I would always start off the class with what I thought was a provocative question. I wouldn't -- history to me is not dry dates and facts, it's connections. Connecting with, well, what, what were the problems of the Romans with dealing with minorities? Or things like that. I would seek to make the teaching relevant to the students in every way.

TI: So this is almost like the antithesis of how you were as, when you were in high school and how you were taught?

RM: Yeah, exactly. The teachers wore the same clothes. I had one woman teacher who wore the same dress the whole year when I was in high school. And I vowed then that I would never, in any pursuit of life that I went in, would I ever wear drab clothing, because it puts you down so much. It puts you off. And so I, I tried to make the classroom an exciting place, and I think I had some success at that.

TI: Well, during this period of time, too, it was a busy time, because when you're at Renton, you had four children.

RM: Yeah, we had, yeah, David, Linda, Paul, and Kim, in five years. Just like my mother, in a way. And it was a time of growth there, too. We had our family, we had our home, we had the piano, we had, right from the beginning we had Sundays just like we had back in Lewiston. And gradually, parts of the family drifted to Seattle. Two sisters of Lorraine's, and my brother and eventually my mother. So that we had the family together on Sundays again. It was extremely important to me.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 2004 Densho. All Rights Reserved.