Throughout my reading of Mitch AlbomÆs (1997) Tuesdays with Morrie, I conjured up visions and memories of one of my own dearly beloved mentors, my Spanish teacher, Mr. John Reffner. I took Spanish class to learn Spanish in order to increase my skills at appreciating diversity, but I came to realize I learned so much more about myself, life and its meaning than I ever expected. These lessons were due solely to the influence and mentoring of Mr. John Reffner, or ôReff,ö as we all were encouraged to call him.
The first day of Spanish class I was intimidated and nervous. I did not know a word of Spanish other than ôsiö and ôno,ö and I found myself lost in a group of classmates who appeared to know each other from former classes. As a foreigner, I also felt estranged from the predominantly American class. The class was very noisy on the first day, as old classmates regaled themselves with news from the summer break and poked fun at each other. They were quite unruly when a good-looking, tan man in his early thirties in a dress shirt and Burberry slacks walked into the room. I focused only on this well-groomed, good-looking man to avoid my discomfort with my classmates. He proceeded to walk to the chalkboard, pick up a piece of chalk, and wrote the following on the chalkboard, ôJohn ôReffö Reffner.ö He then kept his back to us as he continued to write, ôSchool is not out!ö On the period of the exclamation point, he dotted the punctuation mark with such force the chalk broke and a piece flew to the floor as he banged the remained of it on the chalk tray.
Mr. Reffner or ôReffö turned out to be one of the greatest influences of my life. He not only made Spanish fun to learn, he had a unique gift of patience, humor, and tolerance that are sorely lacking in many individuals in contemporary society. Being from a poor, Middle-Eastern environment, I was used to being taught that females were limited to various role...