About Teachers

Last week, out lodge gave out our “Teacher of the Year” award. I was on the committee to choose the winner. It was very difficult. The school administrator from each school in the district submitted a short essay on why this particular teacher should receive this award. We have some outstanding teachers in Hanover County. I have come to learn one fact from all of this. You have to know some really bad teachers to appreciate the really good ones.

I was lucky. My mom budgeted and saved to send me to private schools in Memphis, Tennessee. She did not believe I would get a good education from the public schools at the time. So, I had some pretty outstanding teachers growing up. They taught me more than just what they were supposed to. They taught me about being a good person outside of school. They did this unknowingly. They were my first role models. Here are some examples:

Mrs. Cindy Halupnik – I had her as a teacher twice in elementary school. She taught me to respect other people and their feelings. At that I was a slow learner.

Mr. Chris Dahlberg – In high school, he taught me an appreciation of technology in computer and physics classes. This was in the early 1980’s. I learned that computers were here to stay. He helped me understand the basics of what I would need to know.

Mrs. Cathy Donaldson – She encouraged my love of reading and books. She challenged my opinions of the “classics”, and I challenged her on Stephen King.

Mr. Billy Pullen – Taught me appreciation for the arts. He taught me that an educated person needs to know more than just how to read and write. He taught me how to debate and discuss without getting emotional or personal. It has been a valuable skill given how opinionated I can be.

Mrs. Patti Sanders – She gave me an appreciation for literature as well. She also introduced me to my favorite book “The Count of Monte Cristo”.

Mr. Michael Semore –He taught me learning can be fun and enjoyable. You can have a sense of humor and be a teacher. He was the music director at my church. So, we would talk about things outside of school as well.

There are more who contributed to the bits and pieces that eventually became me. They are just too many to list and others I have forgotten their names.

As I said, you have to know some bad teachers to appreciate the good ones. When my kids started to school I found out all about that. They started in elementary school in Southern California. The teachers there are unionized. Their incentive and style of teaching is different to say the least. You have probably heard about some of the scandalous behavior from teachers out there. The worst part is they get away with it because of their unions.

I also found that education takes a back seat to the whims and wills of the unions. I needed to talk to a teacher about my child one day. She could not spare me the time because they were marching and protesting in front of school that morning. That told me everything I needed to know. I only met one teacher I liked out there. The rest I either could not stand or just did not care. I could tell more horror stories, but I think you get the picture. We moved to Virginia when the kids were in fourth grade. Alex had two really good teachers in fourth and fifth grades. PK ended up with two duds. One was some jock who could not play football any more so he became an elementary school teacher. Most of the kids were smarter than him. His fifth grade teacher was another piece of work. She taught what was on their standardized tests and communism. I kid you not, communism.

You know how you have to buy those supplies for the kids at the beginning of the year during elementary school. Well, we try to buy our kids good stuff to last all year. This teacher had the kids put all their supplies in baskets and choose them when they used them. PK never got to use his stuff. The other kids in the class remarked on how nice his stuff was AS THEY WERE USING THEM! I did my best to make it a learning experience for him on why communism does not work. The powerful get all the good stuff without having to work for it. You can put junk supplies in the basket and take the good stuff to use that was not yours. Those who try the hardest to do their best get punished. I was so glad when that year was over. The good thing is PK was intelligent enough to make it through that year without any trouble. I can’t say the same for some of the others. Some did not learn a thing. They were passed anyway.

They just finished seventh grade. They have some really great teachers at their school. The principal is the first one of theirs I have met that I have liked. He actually loves his job and seems to care about the kids. When I have come to him about an issue, he takes care of it. I can say the same for the assistant principal as well. Most of their teachers are great as well. There are exceptions. There is one who is past retirement age. She does not seem to enjoy teaching and hates kids. I don’t understand why she doesn’t just retire and do something else. A couple of them are just ditzy, not dangerous, just ditzy. They get the kids through. I am looking forward to them going to high school. I sincerely hope they have as good of teachers as I had. It makes a world of difference in the learning process.

At one time I wanted to be a teacher. My experiences with teachers and as a teacher’s helper back in California cured that. It was such a bad experience, I can’t shake it. I was thoroughly disgusted with the entire profession. I have looked into it since I moved to Virginia. There are programs you can go through as a change of career without going through school, again. It is a bit expensive and times are tough. Even if I did it, the schools are still laying off teachers. I do not even want to begin my rant on budget priorities within the school districts out here. So, I just teach my kids at home.

My respect goes out to teachers past and present. You are not just educating our children. You are molding them into the people they will someday be. You may not realize the impact you have on them at this time. I can assure you, it’s there. You may see a group come and go each year. From our point of view, we see one teacher for each class we take. Finally, it is up to you what we take away from your class when school is out. You are the main source of honor, character, and integrity we receive outside our parents for the formative years of our lives.

Thank you to all my teachers.

Happy Birthday Bob! I still miss you!

In a few weeks it will be what would have been Bob Harrod’s 85th birthday. I have not written or talked about Bob for a long time. It is not that I have forgotten him or don’t care. I think of him every day. It’s just there is nothing left to say. A couple of years back, someone told me I was being discussed on one of those forums about missing people. I decided to check it out. I did not hide who I was. I offered to answer any and all questions if I could. I found another one and joined it as well. Since the Placentia police were not interested in what I had to say, these people were. I was actually naive enough to believe this was about helping to solve the mystery of what happened to Bob.

 After a few weeks I noticed a trend. These people are trying to play CSI or Columbo. They think the answer is very simple and will be revealed in the next half hour to an hour. It’s not. This is real life. There are no easy answers or even answers at all sometimes. I also discovered there were people directly involved in the case who were pretending to be objective observers. They were able to sway most people into thinking along with them. They would try to convince people they did not know what they knew or did not see what they saw. Eventually, it got so bad, if I said anything they did not agree with, I was shouted down. Being loud and intimidating does not make you right. It makes you a bully. The truth is the truth. So, I gave up.


Everything was pretty quiet until the show “Missing” on the ID channel did a show about Bob. I watched it. It took a while. I had to stop it now and then to try to comprehend what I was seeing. Afterward, someone wrote me to ask what I thought about it.

Here goes… It was a great piece of fiction. If you think omitting is the same as lying. I could see the attorney’s fingerprints all over it. I saw the Placentia police try to portray themselves as a legitimate law enforcement agency instead of the bumbling idiots we all know they are. I watched people say things I knew were completely not true. I saw high drama and emotion as people pretended to be who they were not. If I did not know the players and was Bob’s closest friend at the time, I would have thought it was a good show. Otherwise, it was a farce. It also makes me wonder if all these shows are like this. They show one side and just enough details to make it interesting enough for people to watch.

 They filmed parts on location. I was very sad to see my old house and the memories that are now gone. I saw parts of Bob’s house and it made me miss him even more. It also made me angry. I remember the Placentia police trying to pass this off as some demented old fool who wandered off. Then, they said he got cold feet. The truth is, they were just trying to close the case so they would not have to do any real work. The shameful part is they wasted so much time people had a chance to get their alibis and stories straight. By the time they pulled their collective heads out of their collective rectums and investigated the case as a kidnapping and murder, it was too late.

At this point, here is what I feel. Bob Harrod is dead. He was kidnapped or coerced out of his home and murdered. We will never know who or how. We will never know where his body is. We will never know what happened. This is not TV or a movie. This is real life. R.I.P. Bob.