A Spark of Inspiration

As William Arthur Ward said, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” I have encountered many great teachers in my educational career and each one, in his or her own way, has inspired me. This inspiration enables me to remember and comprehend far more about a subject. This is what made Miss Ferenczi, the intriguing substitute teacher in Charles Baxter’s Gryphon, a great teacher: she encouraged the students to think and learn.

Instead of following the typical class schedule, Ms. Ferenczi chooses to engage the students in her own unique way. When she was talking, “there was not a sound in the classroom, except for Miss Ferenczi’s voice.…No one even went to bathroom.” This rapt attention is the gift of an extraordinary instructor. Miss Ferenczi appealed to youths’ learning style with storytelling. And no one was going to forget the interesting facts she illustrated.

For example, for the unit on Egypt Miss Ferenczi did not bore everyone with dates, facts, and details to memorize. Instead, she engrained the Egyptian’s beliefs into each student’s head by describing, “how they [people] behaved—‘well or ill’—in life,” could affect their prospects of reincarnation. Or, that “people act the way they do because of magnetism produced by tidal forces in the solar system, forces produced by the sun and by its ‘planetary ally,’ Jupiter.” Miss Ferenczi’s “ideas themselves were, as the dictionary would say, fabulous.” With such vivid and captivating ideas, none of Miss Ferenczi’s students would ever forget the religious aspects of Egyptian culture.

For young minds, Miss Ferenczi manages to capture the most important foundations of education: an interest in learning. Once this spark is lit for a student, it could be the start of something big; it could change a person’s life. As my great-aunt once said to me, “Labor for learning before you grow old, for learning is better than silver or gold. Silver and gold will vanish away, but a good education will never decay.”