WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOL TWO RIVERS WI CLASS OF 1989

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

MR. OTTO

Mr. Otto was the geometry teacher at Washington. His room was on the first floor. I had him during my junior year.

Otto's room had tables. Two students sat at each one. I was put next to class of 1990's Jason Krings. Jason and I got to be friends that year. He was a pretty cool dude. We sat at the second table from the front, in the middle aisle. Class of 1990's Rick Halada sat in front of us. Rick and I used to mockingly threaten to beat the shit out of each other all the time. Rick was cool too. Cindy Hayes and Chris Staudinger sat at the table behind us.

Anyway, Otto was an older teacher. He was a good guy. But it seemed like he was stuck in the 1960's. In fact, with his short hair and old-looking glasses, he looked just like a student picture out of my parents' high school yearbooks.

If you've ever taken geometry, you might recall that what you learn early on, must be continually used throughout the year. So if you get lost early, you might as well give up. That was my case. I think I got a D in the 1st quarter. The second quarter found me with an F. There was a rule that in order to pass a semester, you had to pass two out of the three things - each quarter plus the final exam. If you fail two of the three, you failed the semester. Even if you had an A+ and two F's, you'd fail. So I had to pass the final exam in order to pass the semester. I was sunk. The first day back, after the exam, Otto was out sick. Mrs. Sullivan (mother of fellow graduate Beth) was the substitute. She had Otto's gradebook, and showed each of us our results. I got 50% correct on the exam. In other words, I failed. But wait! As we found out later, Otto graded the exam on a curve. And 50% was the cutoff point for passing. So I passed the semester! If I'd had one more wrong on the test, I'd have failed. Score!

In the second semester, I got "F" "F" and "F." Oh well.

Since I was totally lost, I pretty much gave up. I simply showed up for class, and would joke around with Jason for the hour. I remember one time Otto looked at me and said, "Burt, you're 1,000,000 miles away. And Jason, you're not helping him any." But the best was yet to come.

Picture the scene. Otto was up at the chalkboard, explaining the pythagorean theory or something. Everyone had their compass' and protractors out, and were busy doing stuff on paper. Well... everyone but me. I had never even opened my books that day. Instead, they were all closed and were neatly stacked in the upper right corner of the table. Instead, I was leaning back in my chair, reading the Satanic Bible. What a sight. Being so close to the front of the room, I'm surprised it took Otto so long to notice me. But when he did, he blew a gasket. He slammed his pointer stick onto his desk, then yelled, "Burt, follow me! And take that damn book with you!" Otto then lead me down the hall and up the stairs to the second floor. I was sure I was on my way to see Mr. Wood. But no! We passed right by his office. Otto then turned around, pointed to Wood's office and said, "This is where I should be taking you. But I'm taking you to a counselor. And believe me, you need counseling!"

When we got to Mr. Boehlke's office, Otto sat me down in a chair. Then he went off on some sort of bizarre tirade about hippies in the 1960's throwing horse shit on police cars, and how they're now yuppies making $70,000/year jobs. He carried on for a couple of minutes, then left. Mr. Boehlke and I looked at each other in stunned silence. Then the normally reserved Boehlke burst out laughing. He then said to me "Mr. Otto has to kick someone out of his class maybe once every five years. You're the one. Congratulations!" We both laughed.

I assured Boehlke that I wasn't a Satanist, and that it was only an interesting book. He was fine with that, but pleaded with me not to read it in Otto's class anymore. Five minutes later, I was back in class, with no repercussions.

In my trapper keeper, I had some rubber tubing which I'd stolen from Mr. Conrad's class the year before. I came up with a cool idea. Using both my compass and Jason's, I connected them together with a pencil. Then I tied the rubber tubing around the top of each compass. In other words, I made a makeshift crossbow. And it was awesome. It worked great! That thing would could shoot a pencil or pen incredibly fast. Of course our compass' would no longer work. Oh well. I still have it. In fact, you can see it below. Instead of a pencil, it's held together with a pen now. It's so perfect. You pull back on the tubing, and you can actually set the pointy end of the pen or pencil on the "sight" - which is the part where you stick the pen in. Geometry was fun. But I didn't learn much.



I believe Otto had formerly been the coach of the girls basketball team. I think he still assisted from time to time. I believe he ended up retiring a few years after we graduated. As far as I know, he still lives in Two Rivers - a block or two east of Magee. If I'm not mistaken, a small college scholarship in his name is awarded to a high school graduate every year.

8 Comments:

At Tue Jul 11, 01:32:00 PM PDT, Blogger karmadog said...

Mr. Otto was a good teacher. I liked him, even though I was too lazy to do all the homework.

My DAD had him for geometry in, like, the 19th century or something.

 
At Tue Jul 11, 02:25:00 PM PDT, Blogger Lisa said...

Wow, that's funny, my parents had him for a teacher too!!

Mr. Otto was my favorite teacher in high school! Math was never my strong point and he's the only reason I ever got a grasp on geometry.

I know he had a passion for basketball too and helped out on the boys varsity team.

He definitely stands out as a very dedicated and enthusiastic teacher and one I always respected!

 
At Wed Jul 12, 07:37:00 AM PDT, Blogger TWORIVERSWALRUS said...

I was going to say palindrome also. I guess it's sort of correct.

You're right about the bees. I'd forgotten all about that.

 
At Wed Jul 12, 07:40:00 AM PDT, Blogger jenny said...

mr. otto was my favorite teacher. i loved his class and i love geometry. he was my dad's basketball coach and in 1957 they won the state championship!
he did indeed have an apiary near the fairview golf course where all the knew housing/condos are now. bee keepers are special patient people and mr otto is indeed special. he is a sweet soul and a great teacher! he still lives near my mom and looks exactly the same. bless his sweet heart!

 
At Wed Jul 12, 02:37:00 PM PDT, Blogger jenny said...

"say it if you know it!" does anyone else remember this statement?
i also remember him breaking chalk all the time. He could shoot the broken chalk into the waste basket from any where in the room! he always made it!

 
At Wed Jul 12, 04:13:00 PM PDT, Blogger TWORIVERSWALRUS said...

Ha! I remember that.

I never said anything.

 
At Thu Aug 17, 04:29:00 PM PDT, Blogger TWORIVERSWALRUS said...

Wow. Hey Jason! I had totally forgotten about that. But I do remember it now. What I remember most is that you didn't mention my name to Wood. Thank you for that.

Well, I simply assumed you never mentioned my name to Wood, as he never came after me for it. If you had, I'm sure he would have.

 
At Sat Aug 30, 05:31:00 PM PDT, Blogger rohrerbot said...

This guy is truly a good man. One of the few I have met in this world. Several years ago his wife passed away. I came home for Christmas and was with Kim Nokes. We passed his home and saw him sitting alone in his dining room looking at pictures. We stopped there and he opened the door to invite us in....he remembered our names and we had a wonderful talk. He still live close to that lot where our old school used to be but he doesn't beekeep anymore.

 

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