Ms. Nellie Safford, a sixth-grade teacher when I was a sixth grader at Madrona Middle School — she was a great teacher: really tough, really scary, and she cared about us!
In the beginning, though, she was the first teacher that made me sick with fear when I thought about her. I had been in school from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade, and a teacher never frightened me so much that I did not look forward to going to class.
Ms. Safford was a different story from all the nice and sweet old teachers that I had learned from in elementary school. The kids always said mean things about her on the playground.
"She's mean!"
"She's a real b—–!"
"She is the worst teacher ever! Don't get Safford!"
I could not believe that so many students had such a bad opinion of this lady.
"She made us stay in at recess and finish reading the last chapter of the book!" One kid complained.
Wow! I did not want to have to deal with this lady, so I thought.
Then the enrichment cycle dumped us into her class. Every six weeks, the sixth grade classes would rotate to different teachers, who would teach us technology, art, or science experiments. It was a welcome respite from the daily grind of math and English. I loved to draw, and I looked forward to any opportunity to get out of Ms. A's English class. She could not keep the students in line for long, and I did not like having to deal with mean and rude kids.
Then came geography: Ms. Safford's class. Oh No!
I could not believe that I was going to have to sit through that lady's class. She was not a nice lady, so I thought, so I had heard, so I had formed in my little, sixth-grader mind. But there I was, having to suffer, preparing for the worst.
The first day in Ms. Safford's class, she called us rude and unattentive.
"This is the rudest class!" she snapped at us. What had we done wrong? We were packing up our belongings. Looking back, I have to admit that we had developed that natty habit from Ms. A, my homeroom teacher, a lady who never gave us any boundaries. At the time, I just believed that Ms. Safford was a rude brute.