GREAT WALL OF EHS

The school year has ended and there's big plans for my old lab. They are completely tearing down my room and the chemistry room and re-doing the design to fit with today's curriculum standards. And my beautiful wall must be sacrificed. I taught in this room for 44 of my 46 years in the classroom.

Back in the early 80s I had a student who was a decent artist. I asked her if she'd like to paint me a mural to jazz up the lab. She said surely she would....but that it might take a while. Very smart girl...studies came first. Somehow, she got into the lab on a Saturday morning and, on a Monday morning, I found a few lines sketched on the wall to get the proper proportions for what she envisioned. The lines stayed that way for weeks and one Monday morning I came in early (as I always did) and I saw some color. She started in about the middle where the mountain top sticks up out of the trees. Then it stayed that way for a long time and on a Monday I came in and more had been done over the weekend, expanding from the center outward.

This process started in 10th grade and progressed through the 11th and 12th grades. She finished it in segments just before graduation. And instead of a mural.....I got a painting. She even added me to the painting...you might notice the fly fisherman in the river. It was well known that fly fishing is my passion and she picked up on that vibe.

After graduation, she went off to the University of Wisconsin and majored in BioCore and Art. She couldn't decide whether to be an artist, a doctor or a dentist like her father. Ultimately she went to medical school and became a pediatrician...in fact, the Chief of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. She worked at that for a long time but, as she told me some time in the past, one can only work with terminally ill kids for a while before you just can't deal with it anymore. So she re-certified in Dermatology and is presently a practicing dermatologist. I suspect there's no one calling her at 02:30 for an emergency mole removal.

This pic is now the wallpaper on my computer. I do miss teaching so...especially working with special people like this doctor/artist.

Check it out in Large.