Yeah, my favorite probably was geometry, biology, the sciences. It wasn't
algebra; I hated algebra, I hated the algebra teacher. He taught the
male students and he didn't teach the female. He was an excellent
teacher probably but I didn't have the aptitude for the math that he
taught. Or how he taught it. He was at the blackboard you know, working
the equation. No checking for understanding, no . . . so I never caught
on. The other two classes this happened. But one thing he did do for all
of us is that he did college prep and he made sure that each one of us
got into a college and Vinton Bell, who was principal here will tell
you, if it had not been for Julian Pyles we would not have gone to
college. He and another one of my classmates, Dr. Bell and another one
of my classmates started the Julian Pyles Math Award that was given for
the first time this year at West Charlotte. But Julian Pyles taught
vocabulary; he taught organizing. Those were the parts of instruction
that [inaudible]. He taught us how to [inaudible] and he made sure and he was sending students
off and making sure that students at that time were getting into good
schools, not just traditional schools in the South but . . . . And at
that time I hadn't dreamed, I loved Johnson C. Smith's campus but I
thought I could go to Vasser. We had a young lady who was in the class
before me, Diane Oliver, who wrote—
Mademoiselle magazine used to do a summer issue and they had
college interns and she went off and she wrote for them, I mean, that's
what I wanted to do, either be a playwright, an actress or I was going
to write short stories. I thought Diane
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Page 15Leane Powels, he was instrumental in all
of us, and Merdis Rice, I didn't take his Spanish. Barbara Davis, and I
came back to do my student teaching at West Charlotte and they were
right there, there they were, setting the standard. And Julian Pyles
became my friend. He taught me to play bridge.