Plays Well With Boys

There’s no doubt about it - teachers change lives.   For me, it was 7 th grade, Mr. Chiarelli. He was that teacher – almost everyone has one – the one who made an indelible mark on my struggling pre-teen soul. He praised me in the subjects that I was good at, like reading and writing, and challenged me in math, my worst subject. He refused to give up on me; he persisted and so did I, finishing with high B grade in math at the end of that year. He was tough but he had a heart of gold. When he was displeased with us, he would raise one eyebrow and peer at us over his glasses. I spent a whole weekend looking in the bathroom mirror, teaching myself to raise one eyebrow to copy his expression. It comes in handy from time to time. Mr. Chiarelli taught us to sing Amazing Grace and to this day, I am deeply moved every time I hear it. Everyone in junior high knew him as the teacher who taught guitar as an extracurricular activity   - simply because he loved it.   I was one of a few studen