Ms. Johnson was a great influence on my life.  She was my teacher for both 7th and 8th grades.  Class of June 1953 were more than one class-ful (the majority were with Mrs. Jurs) and only eight of us were the overflow.  Therefore, we shared the classroom with the next youngest grade.  In those days, there were 48 desks; 40 of them were the younger and eight of the older.  When she was teaching us, the rest of the class were studying; while we did the same as she instructed the majority of the room.  To this day, I can tune out an entire group of noisy and loud conversationalists.  Ms. Johnson's patience, soft way of speaking, interest in various subjects and her intelligent manner of teaching left a lasting impression.

I always wanted to tell her of that impact, but I had moved to California and when I returned to Chicago and to Volta, she had left the school system and was living in another state.  So perhaps here on the written page I can say, Thank You!  I did become a teacher myself.  My interest, passion and drive to become an educator was based on what I had learned from Ms. Johnson.  As I look back on my professional career of teaching pre-schoolers, as well as adults, who themselves are going into the profession of teaching, I am so gratified that what I did, I did well.  All because a teacher cared about what she taught and how it influenced a young mind who was lucky enough to be in her class.