{"id":7737,"date":"2018-06-07T07:00:42","date_gmt":"2018-06-07T12:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/?p=7737"},"modified":"2018-06-06T12:41:00","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T17:41:00","slug":"local-teaching-legend-harry-methvin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/06\/07\/local-teaching-legend-harry-methvin\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Teaching Legend Harry Methvin"},"content":{"rendered":"

He runs into a former student, \u201cMr. Methvin, do you remember when you wrote a hall pass on a scrap piece of 2×4?\u201d<\/p>\n

His reply: \u201cI thought you were going to a board meeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Harry Methvin. Hall of Fame faculty, St. Louis High School.<\/p>\n

Like The Theme Song\u00a0Of Gilligan\u2019s Island, It All\u00a0Begins With A Two…<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s February. He\u2019s 26, taking classes at McNeese. His father is dying. A construction job just ended. Someone tells him that St. Louis High School needs a substitute teacher – for two days – to spell a teacher who is having issues with her pregnancy.<\/p>\n

\u201c17 years later I taught that child as a student.\u201d<\/p>\n

In almost two decades at St. Louis he set a teaching standard, and made impressions on class after class of students who are now a Who\u2019s Who both locally and afar.<\/p>\n

Many regard him as their favorite teacher. Many regard him as one of their favorite people, period\u2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cNever Smile \u2018Till Christmas\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whether butcher, baker or candlestick maker, most of us have, at least at daydream level, wondered what it\u2019d be like to be a teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat were your teaching principles?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFirm. Fair. Friendly. Consistent.\u201d Boom, boom, boom, boom. Then his mustache twitches and he adds, \u201cYou also gotta be unpredictable.\u201d<\/p>\n

For most of his teaching career he taught 10th grade English. \u201cThey\u2019re not going to remember a misplaced modifier, but they\u2019ll remember how you made them feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

First day of class, right off the bat, he set the line, \u201cThis is my classroom. I was here first.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d tell them what I expected. And then I\u2019d expect it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He grew up slightly north of poor, slightly north of DeQuincy.\u00a0 Now he was teaching city and suburb kids.\u00a0 He was also raised Baptist, now teaching in a private Catholic school. He started at St. Louis in February. Within weeks here came Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had a mass on Ash Wednesday. I didn\u2019t know if I was supposed to go or not.\u201d Playing it safe he went to the copy room, running papers on an old mimeograph machine. When mass was over the kids returned to class, each with the marks on their forehead. None of the kids, or faculty treated him any different, for having not attended mass.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got home I looked at myself in the mirror,\u201d where he found that he had mimeograph ink on his forehead. \u201cIt was divine intervention!\u201d he says with a smile.<\/p>\n

The Upper Room<\/strong><\/p>\n

All the classrooms at St. Louis are on the first floor, except Methvin\u2019s. \u201cWe called it the Upper Room.\u201d As fitting an English teacher, he never misses a chance for word play and puns, \u201cIt was the only classroom where you could get a \u2018higher\u2019 education.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important part of each class is the first five minutes and the last five minutes. You set the tone in the first five minutes. You gotta hook \u2018em and then not lose them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once upon a time, there was a class that ruined his first five minutes. They were talk, talk, so Methvin did the walk, walk.\u00a0 He closed his books, left the room, went down the stairs to his office, and did not return.<\/p>\n

The next day, the same class waiting for him, no teacher.\u00a0 Time passed. A student came to the office. \u201cMr. Methvin, will you come teach us?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the third day the principal, Mr. Daniel Ieyoub, came to Methvin. \u201cI just got a call from a parent that says you won\u2019t teach his child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re just trying to make a point, aren\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes sir, I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

The point was made. And as it goes in schools, the word gets around, older students tell the tale, and new 10th graders arrive pre-sold, on rules and consequences.<\/p>\n

Attention To Details<\/strong><\/p>\n

He had a seating chart. Did roll before the bell rang. With the bell, the teaching promptly began. \u201cA class is 50 minutes. If you waste 5 minutes of each class that\u2019s 10% of the class.\u201d The 10% adds up to entire school days, when figured over a school year.<\/p>\n

For true learning, \u201cYou gotta make them feel challenged, like they were in a battle,\u201d and then he adds the hammer point, \u201cbut they need to come out the winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

If someone was inattentive, or uninvolved, or worse, misbehaving, Methvin was subtle in how he handled it. \u201cIf you corner a child, embarrass them in front of their peers, they\u2019ll fight back.\u201d Instead, Methvin used subtlety, patience and the power of good intentions, one on one.<\/p>\n

Just as parents have to pick between being a parent or a friend, so too a teacher has to pick between being a teacher or a friend. Kids being kids, like it or not, serious works.\u00a0 He had a rule, \u201cNo smiles \u2018till Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he smiled. After Christmas\u2026well\u2026<\/p>\n

Throughout our conversation Methvin kept using a word \u2013 endurance. He trusts endurance, knows it works in school, both in teaching and in learning, works in jobs, family, works for the whole of life.\u00a0 The word was learned at home, watching his parents fight the old battle of getting by, two steps forward, one step back.\u00a0 Endurance seeped into his lessons, a seed planted, a gift into the toolbox his students would take into the world of adulthood.<\/p>\n

_ \u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _\u00a0 _ \u00a0 _ \u00a0 _<\/p>\n

This edition of Uncle P\u2019s Bedtime Stories is brought to you by Eighty-one, where we applaud those who sow, sow, sow so that we won\u2019t end up so so-so.<\/i><\/p>\n

Other Bedtime Stories can be found on the Eighty-one Facebook page.\u00a0 Uncle P can be reached at 81creativity@gmail.com.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He runs into a former student, \u201cMr. Methvin, do you remember when you wrote a hall pass on a scrap piece of 2×4?\u201d His reply: \u201cI thought you were going to a board meeting.\u201d That\u2019s Harry Methvin. Hall of Fame faculty, St. Louis High School. Like The Theme Song\u00a0Of Gilligan\u2019s Island, It All\u00a0Begins With A [&hellip<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[59,894],"yoast_head":"\nLocal Teaching Legend Harry Methvin - BestOfSwla<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bestofswla.com\/2018\/06\/07\/local-teaching-legend-harry-methvin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Local Teaching Legend Harry Methvin - BestOfSwla\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"He runs into a former student, \u201cMr. Methvin, do you remember when you wrote a hall pass on a scrap piece of 2×4?\u201d His reply: \u201cI thought you were going to a board meeting.\u201d That\u2019s Harry Methvin. 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