My Favorite Math Teacher--Mr. Hanson

Dr. Robert J. Rapalje

Seminole State College of Florida

Sanford, FL  32773

It seems like only yesterday--I was a high school student majoring in English with plans someday to become, of all things, a teacher.  I attended a small high school--there were only 40 students in my graduating class--so we were "blessed" (usually!) with the same teacher for several consecutive years.  It was not until I found myself in college a few years later that I learned how truly blessed I had been in math.  Mr. Bob Hanson of Tavares High School was a great math teacher. 

As I think back to Mr. Hanson's classroom, I was a good student, but certainly not his best.  Mr. Hanson was so good at motivating and encouraging his students, he always had dozens of students that excelled in his classes.  These were the students who set the curves and took the top honors.  I just worked very hard, trying to keep up. 

The thing I remember most was homework!  Mr. Hanson believed in lots and lots of homework.  I must have spent every night of my four years of high school doing math homework.  "Practice, practice, practice, . . ."  "Math is not a spectator sport!"  However, there was something about Mr. Hanson's explanations that made math easy to understand.  Not only that, but his classes were fun.  He was lively at the board, cracking corny jokes and telling silly stories.  But make no mistake about it, when it came to learning math, for Mr. Hanson, it was serious business.  He set high standards for his students, and we met his high standards to the best of our abilities.  Most importantly, however, Mr. Hanson was our friend.  He always celebrated and shared our success in his classes.  

It was not until a few years later, as a student in calculus, that I realized how much math I had learned from his classes.  My math skills were better than my English skills.  Only recently, am I realizing how much I learned about teaching from his classes.  Good teaching, like being a good student, is hard work.  It takes years of practice to develop the art of teaching, to develop skills and strategies that will motivate students to do their best.

So, in conclusion, aim high--be a teacher!  And if you become a teacher, set your goal each year to be a better teacher than you were the year before! 

Note:   This article was written by me in my younger days, as a math instructor at Seminole Community College.  In retrospect, my goal for all these years has been to try to be a math instructor like Mr. Hanson.

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