EY #31: Tell about high school. Was it okay for girls to be smart at your school?

I must say this question intrigues me. Not the telling about high school part.  It's the was it okay for girls to be smart part... Not exactly sure why it wouldn't be, or why Brooks would have asked this question, unless it was spurred by the story I probably told her about this man:

Vern Kresse: Jr. Year Physics

Ah yes... Mr. Kresse (pronounced Kressey).  Can't say that I ever disliked a teacher more than him with the possible exceptions of a Jr. High Art teacher and a calculus professor in college, but that's different.  See, I was smart.  I like to think I still am, but my kids have passed me up and my grandchildren aren't too far behind, but I WAS smart.  I always planned on being a teacher myself and at this point in my life, I wanted to be a Math/Science teacher and had decided I was going to go as far as possible in Math & Science in high school.  So, junior year I took Physics.  

There were only two girls that year who took Physics and we were in two different classes, so we couldn't work together.  The first week of class, Mr. Kresse made it clear that he didn't believe girls belonged in his class.  He pretty much came out and said so, but I determined I would stick it out and show him.  It was rough and I found myself getting B- and Cs on a lot of my work and the fact that I couldn't find anything wrong with my work made me begin to believe that maybe he was right. Maybe Physics WAS too difficult for my poor, feeble, female brain.  Until the week I was paired on an assignment with the clown who sat at the table in front of me.  I did all the work on the project, took all the notes, let him do his write-up of the project from my notes and he got an A for the same information I got a C!!! It was then I decided Mr. Kresse truly was just a male chauvinist jerk and gave up science 'til I got to college. 

Typical me in Senior study hall.
Calculus book open, pencil in hand and
Shakespeare on hand in case I had "spare time."

There were plenty of other cool teachers, though!  We had a fabulous sophomore Chemistry teacher named Mr. Babich, who moved on to become an assistant vice principal.

Mr. Frank Babich

Then there was Miss Gray for "English Lit" and "English Composition."  It was thanks to her that I learned to use so many wonderful filler words.  You know. "However," "therefore," "whereas," etc. to meet the requisite number of pages in a term paper!

Miss Myrtle Gray

And then there were the psychology teachers who introduced me to the complexities of the human mind!  Don't they look like psych teachers?  Mr. Brouhard, a bit psychotic himself and Mr. Hollingsworth, the romance novel teacher in sport coat???  (He had a grin to die for!)

                                                                                

                                                                               Mr. John Brouhard

         

Mr. Dewey Hollingsworth

But the absolute BESTEST teacher in the whole world; my favorite of all time was Mr. Conant. The accelerated math teacher for Junior year Trigonometry & Analytic Geometry and Senior year with Calculus.  He wasn't an easy teacher. He was tough. But he was encouraging and challenging.  

Mr. Larry Conant
(He was kinda cute for an "old man." Don't you love the sideburns?)

He used to walk around the class when we were working on homework or taking a test and bend down, hands on his knees with his chin by your elbow watching your work.  Talk about making you nervous!!! But you didn't dare stop, 'cause then he'd think you were stumped and he'd start asking you questions to get you going again and it would draw everyone's attention to you! I still don't understand how a teacher who made me feel so nervous all the time could be my favorite, but I guess it's just because we all knew that he cared and he wanted to see each of us succeed. He wanted us to get it.  I hope all of my grandkids will get to experience at least one Mr. Conant in their years of school!

Speaking of math class, by Senior year Calculus, we were down to 15 in the class and I was again the only girl in a class. One day after everyone got their ACT scores back, I overheard all of my male classmates comparing their scores, especially in Math. They were all excited over Mike Teska's (our valedictorian) score of 34 out of the possible 36.  I was sitting quietly among them,  secretly gloating, with my nose in a book, as usual, when one of them turns to me and says    
            "Hey! Wha'd you get?" 
            "Hmmmm?"
            "Wha'd you get?"
            "What did I get on what?"
            "Your ACT math score. Wha'd you get?"
            "Oh. 35."
            "35!?!?!?!?! What? 35?"
            "You don't believe me?"
            "Well, no it's not that.... Hey guys! Teska! Guess what Zielke got!!!"
Even though I never really felt intimidated by guys in my classes, every once in awhile it sure did feel good to show 'em up.  Welcome Carol, to the feminist movement!

I guess this post doesn't really tell about my high school.  It turned into a tribute to some of my favorite teachers, but as final proof that it was okay (with everyone except Mr. Kresse) for girls to be "smart" in my school, here's the yearbook picture of everyone from my class who was inducted into the National Honor Society during our Junior Year.

1972-73 NHS Inductees from East Aurora High School
Score 16 boys vs. 29 girls!
(I'm second from the right in the first row)