Photoessay #642 - Mr. Kenward

When I was in 5th grade in 1962-3, I had this wonderful teacher. Mr. Kenward. I adored him. He had a huge influence on me. I could not wait to go to school every day in the 5th grade; I was so eager to find out what fascinating thing he was going to do next. He was creative, original, idealistic and didn't mind breaking some rules now and then which made it even more fun. In fact I called him some years ago, just to find him to see if he was for real. He was, had just retired and he remembered me! He also remembered, with fondness, how he had us rewrite the pledge of allegiance and we did, leaving out 'under god' and the papers picked it up and, being 1962 in California, there was a huge cry to fire him for being a communist, the school board and principal had to defend him. Great drama. I think that I was involved in some substantive way, maybe I was the author or something as I was very eager and smart and one of his favorites.

Last night, I talked with a friend in swimming class about Waldorf methods. I started to remember that Mr. Kenward really endorsed Waldorf teaching. It's become a memory exercise to remember that classroom 47 years ago.

Mr. Kenward was very interested in the Waldorf methods and he incorporated them into his classroom in unorthodox ways. I remember the oblong sweetsmelling beeswax crayons in primary colors. Wachsfarben? something like that. I can see the package in my memory so clearly. Could I really have gotten rid of them? Probably in some box in the back of my stairwell. And wet on wet water color painting. I remember Mr. Kenward pushing all of the desks to one side and we painted using the floor all afternoon. I loved it. I remember the primary colors. My mother contributed boxes of baby food jars which was perfect to hold the paint.

Sometimes Mr. Kenward rode his bike to school and stored it behind his desk. And if that wasn't interesting enough, sometimes he rode a motorcycle and parked THAT behind the desk. Mr. Kenward played the french horn and often played for us. The Cuban missile crisis played out and he had very interesting things to say about that. He had interesting things to say about everything. I hung onto his every word. We went to see Cosi fan Tutte (a Mozart opera) at Sac State.

I will try to remember more. The picture is a typical sort of Waldorf watercolor. As I remember it. Used without permission from somewhere. I can't find any pictures of him then or now.