Miss Jacomet

I attended four different high schools. Three in my freshman year.

I find it humorous that the worst high school I attended had two of the best teachers I ever had.

The best teacher was Miss Jacomet my chemistry teacher at Ecorse High School. On the first day of chemistry class she walked down the desk aisles dropping the periodic table of elements on each of our desks. The announcement was simple. By the end of September we where to be given a test that expected us to know each element, its symbol, abbreviation, atomic weight, and valence. We were not going to cover the table in class. We were expected to learn it outside (homework).

Miss Jacomet the proceeded to teach us chemistry. At that time the high school had three 7 or 8 week grading periods per semester. We had to do about 60 assignments per grading period, including lab reports. We were encouraged to form study groups. I joined one composed of about 4 students from Ft. Wayne, one an attractive young lady that I become good friends with; almost loosing my girl friend.

My parents had taken a laissez-faire approach to our studying/homework. "If they want good grades they will study". As a consequence I have never developed good study habits. The upshot is that I did not want to do the work. As a result Miss Jacomet gave me a failing grade for the first term. My first one ever!

So I wanted out of the class. After making a lot of noise one of my parents (My father I think) and I were meeting with my counselor waiting for Miss Jacomet to join us so I could drop the class. She walked in said that I was smart enough to do the work and that she would not allow me to drop the class and walked out. There was no discussion.

Needless to say I stayed in the class, buckled down, and got a B and A for the next two marking periods. Miss Jacomet always had time to answer questions and help us understand. One of our assignments was a term paper. One other student and I selected the proton as our subject. We both spent hours at the Detroit Public Library (at the time it was an outstanding reference library, one of the best in the country). This was during the 1964-1965 school year and not a lot of information on the interior of atoms was available. We collaborated on the research but wrote the papers individually. We both came in several pages short of the requirement. Miss Jacomet accepted the papers and commended us for the effort made on a difficult subject.

Miss Jacomet was an exceptional teacher in that:
1. Her attitude was that her students were smart enough to do the work. This was right out of the box.
2. She was more interested in teaching us how to ask questions and learn.
3. Was happiest when her students did well or had an Aha! moment.

I did not get to finish the year with her. My dad got orders and we moved to Fairfax, Va. I excelled in the new chemistry class, coasting as we had already covered all the material in Ecorse. I did so well that the chemistry teacher asked me to be the lab assistant the next year, my senior year. I accepted and set up the experiments for the chemistry class.