I was thinking about my old high school teacher, Sidney Long. I used Facebook and found he is still living in Fort Bragg, California. He has to be in his late 70’s so I hope that he is doing well.
It got me to thinking about him. He became my favorite teacher. I know that I was not alone in my admiration of him as my class dedicated our yearbook to him, even though he was only a second year student. We jokingly told him that it was because everyone who that the yearbook was dedicated to retired immediately, we were hoping for the best.
Think about it. A second year teacher garnering enough respect from high school students for them to dedicate their yearbook to him. I think that qualifies him to be called a Teacher (capital letter purposely provided).
Obviously, I will always remember him as a twenty-something teacher starting out teaching history to the bunch of us in the little town on the Northern California Coast. This is what we saw:
- He did not even look his age. In fact, when he tried to grow sideburns a year or so later, you had to look real, real close.
- He and his wife had just returned from two years as TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teachers for the Peace Corps in Turkey.
- He drove a VW bug. Definitely did not impress us with his wheels.
- Openly a political conservative, but hard to classify. In addition to being a Peace Corp veteran, there were other things that did not fit a mold. Specifically, he flew an American Flag from a flagpole in his yard, along with a peace flag.
How he taught. He made you think and he made you want to learn. The thing I remember as if it was yesterday was in the Spring of 1968. I was in one of his U.S. History classes. He came in one day and announced that we would not be studying U.S. History for a while. Instead, we would be studying the history of Czechoslovakia. His reasoning? He was watching what had been going on and he felt that there was something major about to happen and we should be informed about the country and its history. On August 20th of that year, the Soviet Union marched into Czechoslovakia and put down the movement towards democracy. Impressed the heck out of me. Still does. Yes, I know about the Czech Spring but I do not think anyone was expecting much more to happen.
On a personal basis
I guess I remember most was the first year I had him as a teacher. To say I was an underachiever is the ultimate understatement. I had no plans for a higher education as this did not seem to be in the cards for me and my circumstances and school was too darned easy for me to make any effort. However, he changed that in his class (as an editorial note, it is too bad it did not rub off elsewhere).
Unlike most teachers, he stated the requirements for the class for the whole year. One of the requirements was the final research paper at the end of the year. His only requirements were that it had to do with U.S. History and it had to be on a subject that was unique so that he did not have to read the same paper repeatedly at the end of the year. This meant that first come – first serve. I picked a subject that I was personally interested in within a week. His acquiescence and support caused me to do research in such detail that my footnote pages exceeded the size of the paper and my bibliography exceeded both. In short, I jumped all over it. Sid Long supported me, as well as others, to go for the independent study to spread my wings and push myself, as I had never done before.
If that were all, it would have been enough to make him memorable. However, along the way, he got me focused on positive political action. I do not know how, but it seemed that his teaching made me want to become involved proactively. I campaigned for a political candidate. And I did not riot in the streets when he was killed.
I got involved in student government. Even when I lost an election, I turned it into a positive so that some irregularities would not occur again instead of fighting the irregularity. I even was involved in writing a new school constitution, which he allowed me to use as my Senior Research Paper. As I went a long time after without such involvement again, I can only say that he sparked my imagination.
Most of all, he treated me as something special. Just like he treated every other student. I think that was his secret. He made everyone seem that they were important. I cannot point to too many actual incidents, but I guess that is the point. I was so used to the rather limited quality of the teachers I had in small town America, coupled with many teachers who were always desperately aware of the importance of the local movers and shakers in town and treated their children accordingly.
Sid Long did not. I always thought he was interested in the student and his/her willingness to learn. Thus, more than Fifty Years after I first met him, he still remains an important person in my life.
