1. Some major reasons used to try to get out of having me for English 4 (people wanted in to Honors 2 etc):
    1. I can't have her; she is too short. If I am going to fail, I want to fail from someone taller than my kneecaps (they gave him Sister Gilmary , a Nolan sized nun)
    2. I don't know any English; she will expect me to know something and I am going to have to learn what I don't know as well as wha
    t she wants.
    3. I am related to her (he wasn't) and it would make us both uncomfortable for me to have to grade his work (he was told the only thing we shared was breathing space). He was not moved.
    4.I have a life.
    5.I have her and Joe Seaman ; I can't have them both. I need a life.
    6.I have a job.
    7. I play football (that never worked bc Madiera liked me and made them stay and they had a pass to stay after school any day with me for extra help to come to practice late.)
    8. I am scared of her (one parent laughed at her big kid for that one; she said, "I have seen her; she is five foot nothing and must not weigh 100, what is there to be scared of?")
    9. i have her for class, homeroom and study hall; should I really have her for all three? She even makes us be quiet in homeroom and study hall.

    Then there were the football players who spent a week carrying things for the nuns (Greg, Ryan, Ray, you know who you are) trying to get out and they made them stay. But they had fun and Greg went back and thanked the nun for making him stay. I think the main reason was I didn't mind explaining the dirty jokes in Shakespeare and they thought them hilarious.

    Sister Sandy in guidance used to say tell me when you are going to give back your first English 4 test of the year because I am closing the door and going back to the convent early that day because they would take the test and beg. She would ignore them and occasionally a kid said, "She put me in your class on purpose. I am not allowed to complain about it." Once in 1990 I offered them the chance to read a book and take a test on it after school and replace that grade with their bad test grade and they complained it was too hard of an extra credit so I cancelled extra credit for the year. I remember saying now you have something to complain about.
    87Like · 
    • Jennifer Wierski I think I know who Greg, Ryan and Ray are! They were in my grad class. You did have the reputation of being tough, I was scared! But, you just made me work hard-work against myself! Thanks for that! I've never stopped working hard!
    • Denise Peters Yes those were my end of the day football players; what a riot they were.
    • Tommy Salmon I started out stumbling with Mr Seaman's class, and after showing my dad one of his tests, it was the ONLY time he let bad grades slide. However, after a while I figured out his method, which involves critical thinking and actually grasping the subject, and his class became incredibly easy. He was a great teacher.
    • Denise Peters Yeah ,that's what everyone said. Once you realized that he was going to test you the same way every time, that you were going to have to think but it was not going to be anytihing you hadn't learned, or you coudln't do then people loved him. There were people who wanted in there to while others wanted out. We used to say we should get commissions for people wanting out. I remember having these two adorable reprobates the first year and the only time they knew anything in world lit it had to do with religion and the class was shocked and they said, "Seaman, all four years." The others were like four years? They said they were used to him and liked him.
    • Denise Peters You did a great video for me where you had Romeo and Juliet survive , become and old married couple who then killed each other.
    • Denise Peters That last comment was for Tommy Salmon.
    • Michael Yacono My personal experience is the best compliment I can give you. For years I did not understand why I did well with very difficult teachers and struggled to pass the "easy" classes. With age and wisdom I came to understand that as a learner, I could only be taught by those that I respected from their ability to inspire and push me. In every part of my life this has applied. If the "teacher" does not give effort, I will not. At that tender age I had no concept of that about myself, but your passion was infectious, and because I respected you, I would not allow myself to give anything less then my best becuase it would have let you down. You were one of the first people in my life to make me understand that about myself. Subject matter can be used in so many areas of our lives, but a truely great teacher makes us learn something about ourselves. While I understood it many years later, thank you for pushing me when I didn't.
    • Denise Peters 10. come from Dominic. If you can't get out, go across the hall and kick in a trash can in the bathroom (that's when I was in 103B and not 212, or the room formerly known as 213 before the Lemme-ster).