[etni] Tribute to a special English teacher
- From: Avi Granit <judiavi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ETNI <etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:33:18 +0200
Dear ETNIers,
Last week, my aunt (well actually my father's cousin) Sharona Gil, passed away
a few days away from her 91st birthday. She had made "aliyah" from England to
Netanya in 1948 and thereafter worked for many, many years in Netanya as an
English teacher and later, a homeroom teacher.
At the funeral, as her 3 handsome weeping grandsons finished eulogizing their
beloved grandmother whom they all adored, a middle-aged couple came forward and
asked for permission to say a few words. None of the family knew the couple
who explained that they had read about Sharona's passing in the local newspaper
only that morning. They went on to say that they had been pupils in Sharona's
*first* English class in 1948 and they felt they simply had to come to pay
respect to the teacher who so influenced their lives and whom they would never
forget. They told of the difficulty they all had in the beginning, for Sharona
to get used to unruly Israeli children and for them to accept this very British
English teacher whose expectations were unheard of and whose Hebrew was
laughable. They both agreed that after a bitter start the pupil-teacher
relationship flowered; dislike and suspicion turned into respect and love by
the end of their first year together. They spoke of how Sharona's great love
of English literature, particularly Shakespeare, was passed on through her
enthusiasm and theatrical flare, and how the passages she had forced the class
to learn by heart were still imprinted on their memories all these years later.
They said they felt proud and priviledged to have had Sharona Gil as their
teacher.
I just wanted to share this with you all to show you that you never really know
the effect you have on the pupils you teach. I strive to be a teacher even a
fraction as wonderful and inspirational as my aunt was.
Judi G.
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- » [etni] Tribute to a special English teacher - Avi Granit
