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Mary Trieweiler (Germain)
It was a magical weekend indeed -- starting with the tour of the school on Friday morning. What a lot of memories were held within those walls. And contrary to most of the stories I have told on the site, many of them were very good memories! In fact, many more good than otherwise. From Sister Concepta's 1st grade classroom to the music rooms on 3rd floor (and yes, to the closet some of your were put into as punishment for some trivial action) memories poured out from all corners. I think they were just waiting for us to show up to unleash them! I even got to places in that old building that I had never been before -- the attic, the little room that was apparently the nuns' private space, and some really creepy areas in the basement that I only entered and stayed in because there were others of you with me!
One thing I found ironic in all the stories we all shared is that all of us had very different experiences with the same teachers. I would hear people just raving about a certain teacher who had really gone above and beyond for many of us, only to hear someone else tell an absolute horror story about that very same teacher! I, for example, got along very well in Sister's Concepta's class, but many did not fair so well. And that repeated itself with very few exceptions. In fact, the only teachers I heard universal praise about were Sister Lene, Sister Basil, Sister Roberta, Sister Anthony Claret, and Sister Jonathan. All of the others appear to have been human -- just like us kids! Imagine that! I do think that all the experiences we had with all the teachers taught us something. Through our 8 years at Holy Ghost we learned respect, tolerence, kindness, the value of hard work, and so much more. Even from the teachers with whom I did not get along I learned valuable lessons. I remember during on particulary bad year that I actually made a vow that I would remember every bad thing a teacher did to me or to another child and exactly how that made me feel. And I would conjure up those memories when I was an adult dealing with children to remind me how NOT to treat children -- or anyone for that matter. And for the most part, I actually managed to do that. If I hadn't gone through some of those experiences myself, I might not have turned out to be a very empathetic person, and might not have had as much patience with children as I managed to have. I can remember many times when I would remember how someone in charge made me feel as a child, and how I would change my approach based on that. I guess that is something to be grateful for too. It's all been a learning experience in its own way. So, kudos and many thanks for those above-named teachers who understood children and made it their mission to help us become productive adults and good people, and who gave us such fond memories of our days at Holy Ghost. Regarding the others, I can only say, I guess they were human beings with the same imperfections as the rest of us. And I learned from them anyway. And, I finally forgive them all, because they were probably trying their best in the only way they knew how. I think many of them did not have the background and the education to know how to deal with a classroom of over 50 kids.
My only regret from the perfect weekend put together by Colleen and Carol and Tom and Linda and Alice is, that I didn't get to spend much time sharing stories with all of you who attended. It was easy to get engrossed talking to a person or two, and pretty soon the time was up! So, there is probably room for more get-togethers to keep on sharing! And when those of you who didn't make it for whatever reason read all these postings, maybe it will encourage you to come next time! That would be great! One thing we all found out is that we are all really nice people! None of us bite; none of us judge anyone by their social or economic status; and we all just appreciate who everyone was back then, and who they have become now. So next time --- y'all come!!
Thanks again to the organizers for a great time.
Mary Trieweiler
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