Thank You, Mr. Jourcin
Mr. Paul Jourcin (1948 - 2020) Like most teachers, one of the major reasons I do what I do is that I was very fortunate to have been taught by some truly amazing educators. In fact, I was very lucky - I can count on one hand the number of teachers who were not good at their jobs; either they had been doing it for far too long or they were just in the wrong profession. Most of my teachers were wonderful people who truly cared about me and my learning. I mention this only to give the context of this statement: of all the teachers I had in school, there were three that made such an impact on my, that even at such a young age, I could not envision myself being anything other than a teacher. Mr. Paul Jourcin was one of those three. For some reason, the junior high school (7th and 8th grade) that I attended offered French as an elective, and I decided I wanted to learn it. I didn't, not then. None of us really learned French, beyond simple greetings and counting ...