Mr. Cehovsky, a Great Teacher
Dear Mr. Cehovsky,
Throughout my years in high school you were a great teacher to me. You helped me to get to know myself better by having conversations with my friends and I after class about our futures, something that I didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about by myself. You helped me to understand how I felt about school and gave me alternate options if I did not wish to pursue a degree past high school. Your teaching method was definitely different, which I found to be a good thing.
Photo taken during a 2018 class lecture. Photo courtesy of Sean Stewart.
I didn’t often feel the urge to fall asleep in your class, as I did in almost every other class throughout the day. You gave us more than what was on your syllabus to cover, you gave us advice that will follow us in situations for the rest of our lives. This is something that other teachers should try to do but isn’t something that everyone is capable of doing.
Incorporating life experiences into classroom learning is important for me because I’ll forget what world leader died on April 5th 1812, but I won’t forget how you were able to deal with a robbery after being shot at by a carjacker or how you were able to rescue a friend from a horrible relationship that he had gotten involved in.
You stand out to me more than any other teacher because of your commitment to get a good discussion going in the classroom. You never attempted to influence the class to be on a side during an ethics debate because you recognized that with life’s topics there is not one right perspective. You made me realize that people will always have varying opinions and there is no reason to try to shape another person’s beliefs to align with your own. Instead it’s important to just listen to what everyone has to say.