Obviously teaching is all about students. My hope
and prayer was and is that somehow or other my teaching has some effect
(however minor) on each of the students I teach. Every teacher has the vision
that students will be shaped, however slightly, by their teaching. In my
days of retirement I now once in a while just try to recall the names, faces
and traits of students who at some time or other sat in my classroom. My list runs
from those fourth through eighth graders in Tracy, California through that very
small band of grades one to three in Glendale, through the grad students I
taught at the Concordias, through the students I taught through an interpreter
in Hong Kong to many others all around the world. . But today I want to again
go back to that very first classroom of some 32 kids at St. Paul’s, Tracy,
California.
I will just select 4 boys for this blog and 4 girls
for my next blog and let them be both individuals and also examples of tens of
others who figuratively sat at my feet as students. For some unknown reason one
of the first to pop into my mind is “Denny”. I recall his unrivaled enthusiasm
for life. He was small for his age. He had a rough life as the son of a single
mom who dearly loved him and struggled with a couple of jobs to have the
tuition to send him to my school. Denny was always full of optimism and energy.
He was convinced we would win any basketball or softball game we ever played.
He was sure he would do well on tests. He energized me and I will always
remember that when I went back to Tracy 50 years after I had taught there he
was the middle aged person who still showed up all decked out in a smart
jacket, shirt and tie and still with a zest for life.
At the other end of the energy spectrum was
“Larry”. He has been abandoned by his birth mother and cared for by a
wonderfully loving aunt and uncle. Studies were a bore to him and he did
poorly. He was not interested in any sports and seemed unaware of his
classmates. I wondered what would ever become of him. Yet, some years later we
were living in Hong Kong and received a telephone call from him! He was in the
US Navy, had a short leave in Hong Kong, heard about us being there and somehow
or other not only located our telephone number but ventured north of Boundary
Street (the limit for US servicemen) to come see us. He was full of life and looking
positively toward the future. He had much praise for his years at St. Paul’s.
Tim was an only child. Both his parents loved him
and wanted only the best for him. They even persuaded me to use some of my
summer time to take him and a couple other students on daylong trips to the
California gold country and there learn about the early days of our
state. Some years later a former high school roommate of mine who had
become a pastor told me that he’d had a call to conduct a funeral in
Tracy, 500 miles from his parish in San Diego. . He got to talking to the funeral
director in charge of the memorial. It was Tim, who upon learning that the
pastor was Lutheran, told him about his Lutheran school experience and a
teacher named “Kieschnick”. He sent warm greetings to the person he claimed had
had a life-long influence on him.
Richard Hamlow was in the sixth grade. My
relationship with him was influenced by another factor. I was a very close
personal friend of his parents. Thus he often saw me in his home in a very
relaxed atmosphere where his parents often shared a few beers with me. They always
called me “Mel”. His parents, however, made it very clear to him that it was not
appropriate for him to do the same. They made sure that Richard always referred
to me either as Mr. Kieschnick or as Teacher Kieschnick. While I was his
teacher I never heard him express any interest in becoming a pastor. But after
I left he made that decision, graduated from the seminary and then served
faithfully for many years until his retirement as a parish pastor. Richard was
the first of many of my students who chose to enter the rostered ministries of
various churches. While I, of course honor every occupation in which people
find their vocation, I am also pleased that many chose their vocations as
professional ministers of the church. And Richard was the first.
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