New memoir reveals the trials, and often humorous, tribulations of teaching in a small-town high school
In 1953 as an eager first-grader, Marianne Love could hardly wait to go to the red brick schoolhouse in her rural hometown of Sandpoint, Idaho. And well she remembers her first teacher, Mrs. Kinney, with her steely discipline, bright red fingernails, math drills and flash cards.
Little could that child know she was about to embark on a half-century love affair with learning and teaching, first as student and then as teacher – and all in Sandpoint, a quintessential Northwest small town where logging and farming were the way of life. Leaving town only to gain her teaching degree at the University of Idaho, she returned fresh out of college to begin a 33-year career as English teacher at Sandpoint High School.
Hers is the warm, remarkable and often humorous story about devotion to both a profession, and a place, and now she writes it in her newest book.
Lessons with Love: Tales of teaching and learning in a small-town high school tells of the three decades Love spent in the classroom, and before, as a student herself growing up in Sandpoint. Love estimates that in her years at SHS she taught to some 4,500 students, and the experiences she accumulated ran the gamut of the good, the bad – and the funny, as anyone might guess from her two first books, Pocket Girdles and Other Confessions of a Northwest Farmgirl, memories from her rural childhood; and Postcards from Potato(e) Land, a continued portrait of life in Sandpoint.
Love’s new book is more than a memoir. It’s also a meditation on teaching, in which she learns her own lessons in a profession that can so profoundly shape the lives of young people. She’s not afraid to offer a tart opinion of those uninspiring teachers who just coast by on their credentials: “I was disgusted that our education was being shortchanged by their ineptitude,” she writes at one point. But she also believes strongly in the positive power teachers can have with what seem like even the most difficult of students.
“Don’t let classroom experiences or judgments cloud your thoughts about a student’s future,” she advises future teachers. “You may be surprised.” Love lards her book with observations and advice from her life in teaching and concludes it with a collection of her top 10 teaching memories, compiled a la David Letterman – though with a bit more depth, conviction and feeling. Marianne’s son William Love, himself a former SHS student who is now a working journalist, contributes a chapter loaded with his own WOWs: words of wisdom to students, from the son of a teacher.
The result is a 288-page chronicle of teaching, learning and one small town’s journey from a sleepy working-class village to burgeoning resort destination. Lessons with Love: Tales of teaching and learning in a small-town high school gives intriguing insights into education and teaching set in the milieu of rural America. For anyone who’s ever gone to school – as a student or a teacher – it will kindle both memories and smiles.
About the author
The author of three books and a retired high school teacher, Marianne Love wouldn’t have lasted long in North Idaho if she didn’t have a sense of humor. With words at hand, she taught English and journalism, as well as did stints advising the high school drill team, newspaper and yearbook, among others. Her 33-year teaching career began in 1969 and lasted until retirement in 2002, all at Sandpoint High School, the rural community where she was born in 1947.
A graduate of the University of Idaho, Love has written for the Pacific Northwest Inlander, Spokane’s Spokesman-Review, the Idaho Register, North Idaho Sunday, the Spokane Daily Chronicle and the Sandpoint News Bulletin. Her work currently appears regularly in the Appaloosa Journal, Spokesman-Review, The River Journal and Sandpoint Magazine.
Her work with high school journalists earned regional acclaim and the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund’s national award as “Special Recognized High School Journalism Teach,” among other honors. In 2004, she was inducted into the Sandpoint High School Academic Teaching Hall of Fame.
A local horse show announced, emcee, horse fanatic and dog owner, Love lives in the country in Sandpoint, Idaho, with her husband, Bill, three horses, numerous cats and two dogs.
Love’s first two books, Pocket Girdles and Postcards from Potato(e) Land, contained side-splitting stories from her childhood and, combined, sold more than 14,000 copies. All her books are available at www.sandpointonline.com in the General Store or by calling 800-880-3573.
Lessons with Love
Tales of teaching and learning in a small-town high school
By Marianne Love
ISBN-10: 1-879628-28-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-879628-28-1
$16
288 pp, 6”x9” softbound
First printing May 2007
Published by:
Keokee Co. Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 722
405 Church Street
Sandpoint, ID 83864
Phone: 208-263-3573
Fax: 208-263-4045
books@keokee.com
BACK COVER ENDORSEMENTS
“A compelling, witty look at the life of a compelling, witty – and richly compassionate teacher. What could be more important? Or more fun?
–Ben Stein
Author, actor, writer and teacher
Former Presidential speechwriter
“The homespun humor and off-the-wall tales in Marianne Love’s first book, ‘Pocket Girdles,’ earned her a lot of fans, and she hasn’t disappointed them since. Now, in ‘Lessons with Love,’ she employs her characteristic humor – and subtler qualities of reflection and reminiscence – to recount some highlights of her 33-year career as a North Idaho schoolteacher. As one of Marianne’s forever-grateful students, I can vouch for her talent and her unbounded enthusiasm – attributes that, page after page, have found their way into this book."
–Keith Lee Morris, SHS Class of 1981
Associate professor of English, Clemson University
Author of “The Greyhound God”
Memories from some of Mrs. Love’s former students
“When I was in high school, I always felt like an outcast. Prom night was the best night of my high school career. The next school day, Marianne Love made a comment to the whole class about me and the ‘dapper-looking young man’ I was with at prom. For that moment, she set me above the rest. That is the memory I take with me for the rest of my life – the one day in high school that the ugly duckling was a princess, if only for a moment. I have Mrs. Love to thank for that and will always remember how she touched my life, how she made me feel special.”
–Kathy Wilhelm Sauer, SHS Class of 1989
Sandpoint-area receiving clerk
“I had Miss Brown (later Mrs. Love) for first-period English during her first year of teaching. She didn’t seem much older than I. I liked the class. I wasn’t intimidated by her, but we also did not take advantage of her inexperience because of our respect for her.”
–Mike Rogers, SHS Class of 1972
Sandpoint building contractor
“I used to walk into first-period English right before the bell rang because I spent every last minute in the halls chatting with my friends. Being in her last year of teaching, when it came to telling me to zip it, Mrs. Love remained extremely calm and collected. I had a mild case of ‘Chatty Katie,’ as she used to say. One extremely vivid memory that I still smile about from junior English starts with Fritz Gibson. Our class was playing hangman on a Friday. It was Fritz’s turn to go to the board. He jumped out of his seat and hurdled Mrs. Love’s desk. We all expected her to be upset, but she calmly asked him to choose a letter so the next person could go. After a brief silence, the whole class burst into laughter.”
–Katrina Rogers, SHS Class of 2003
University of Idaho interior design