This is one of those long over due Thank You’s.  Something I have been thinking about since last week when I went out to dinner {gasp} with other Mom’s without our kids!!!!  This time of year is so busy and I have so many posts brewing but never enough time to write them.  Tonight I promised I would write my Thank You note.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I am asked who was my favorite teacher in High School? Hands down, no questions asked it was Mr. Torjman.

Mr. Torjman meant business, but he so rarely had to get mad that everyone showed up to class and did their work.  Or maybe they didn’t do their work, but just appeared to do their work who knows..  Mr Torjman taught Geography, in french.  Now, I am sure that many of my classmates may have a different take on Mr. Torjman, but that’s ok we are all allowed to have an opinion.

For the most part many of the teachers at my High School were afraid to show that they could have fun.  There was a handful that participated in fun stuff like Kangaroo Court, Pajama Day (everyday is pajama day apparently now), school dances and actually played in bands.  In a school of 1500 students and how many teachers it was hard to see the teachers with the fun side.  Then there was Mr. Torjman.

On a whim he would walk on his hands, do handstands on the garbage can and yes, let students handcuff him to the projection screen.  All with a laugh and a smile. He didn’t participate in the extra fun activities, but his classroom was fun all the time.  Not that I ever skipped a class (Ok I skipped twice, once to get my license, but it wasn’t really skipping because my parents gave me a note and the other time was to go try on my grad dress that I was getting made for me – that’s it!) but nothing would keep me from attending Mr. Torjman’s class.

And the best part of it all was that I actually learned about Geography in class.  And today, I still remember most of what I was taught and pass it on to my own kids.  I can’t say that for any of my other classes, except maybe English Lit.

And to add a fun little story to this, my older Sister and I both had Mr. Torjman at Confederation High School from 1982-1988.  Then we said our good-byes to Confed and carried on with life.  My parents moved to Manitoba and then back again and my younger Sister attended Merivale High in the early 1990’s. One day she is working on this project about a farm they visited and when I tell her we visited the Schouten Farm back in High School, she laughs and says that is where she went.  I asked her who her teacher was and guess what, it was Mr. Torjman.  So I gave her my photos (yes, I took photos back in High School) from the trip to include in her project and Mr. Torjman was delighted to know he was teaching another Sister.  Fast forward another seven years and my baby Sister walks into Geography at Merivale and Mr. Torjman doesn’t skip a beat he knows she is our Sister.  In a course of 16 years he taught all four of us. He retired after that but, my youngest Sister gave him a photo of the four of us as a thanks for being such a great guy.

So Mr. Torjman, if you ever get to read this, I just wanted to say Thank You.  Your demeanor in class and love for Geography kept us all in class and learning.  And all these many years later, I still think you were the best teacher I ever had.  I hope you are still passing on your knowledge to others and enjoying your retirement, just a little.

Thanks again, you Mr. Torjman, made a difference.