Editor:
Eric Olson
In this day and age, it is a shame that teachers are not given the thanks, respect, and in some cases, the salaries that they deserve. Most educators spend their entire lives perfecting their teaching techniques, improving their effectiveness, and trying to stay abreast of new teaching tools and developments. Not only do they have to write exams that are comprehensive, relevant, and fair, but they also spend countless hours grading said exams, quizzes, and homework. They are presented with all types of students: bright, not so bright, industrious, lazy, quiet, problematic, etc., and have to find a way to reach all of them, regardless of the student's habits or shortcomings.
A few days ago, I was back in Minonk to visit my mom. We went out to eat breakfast at Woody's and happened to run into a group of people that I used to know quite well until I left high school. One of the people in the group was Jim Stolt. Seeing him brought back a flurry of fond memories from my youth.I'm sure many of the readers of this editorial will remember Mr. Stolt as the high school chemistry teacher in Minonk for decades. He was a very knowledgeable teacher and was able to teach a variety of subjects. In fact, he was my teacher for five courses in high school: physical science, algebra II, physics, chemistry I, and chemistry II. He helped tutor or sponsor various activities, one including the junior engineering technical society (JETS) competitions. He helped tutor me for competition on the math team and would help field questions that were raised in scholastic bowl tournaments. A couple years before high school, he was even my Webelos leader. (For those of you who aren't aware of Webelos, they are the group of scouts between the younger packs of Cub Scouts and the older troops of Boy Scouts). Very rarely, if ever, does one person have such a strong positive influence on another. I was fortunate enough to have two very positive, influential teachers or professors in my academic career, one of which was Mr. Stolt. (The other was Dr. Standard from Illinois State University). It is difficult for me to put into words what made Mr. Stolt such a good teacher, but I can definitely describe some of his traits. He was bright. Mr. Stolt understood the fundamentals of mathematics, chemistry, and physics so well that he was able to explain the numerous concepts in enough ways that any student could understand them. He was caring. Mr. Stolt spent an untold number of hours of his own time to help any student that asked. I can vividly remember catching him first thing in the morning for help while he made his coffee, many, many nights after school, and even in his own home.
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Most importantly, Mr. Stolt generated and maintained an atmosphere in his classroom that made students want to learn. He made me want to be a geek or a nerd. He instilled in me my passionate love of science. Without his guidance and help, who knows what I may have turned out to be, but it most probably would not have been in the scientific field. As a child and young adult, I was an amazingly curious person, often driving people nearly insane with questions. Why does this work? Why doesn't it work? How fast does it proceed? Why? How? Mr. Stolt was able to answer my questions and provided me with a springboard to generate a completely new set of more educated questions. He taught me the scientific method that changed how I think about everything in my life. Mr. Stolt was the type of teacher that not only told you a fact or equation, but then explained its importance in a real life application. He explained where it came from and what other concepts to which it was related. His classes were the type in which you did not just memorize a few equations for an exam then regurgitate the information, but rather the type where a student was encouraged to ask where the equation came from? What were the limits of the equation? How is the information applied? From what fundamental observable phenomenon was the equation derived? He made me look at everything around me in terms of science, function, and mathematics, and to not simply accept how things worked without question. For all these reasons, I thank Mr. Stolt and apologize for taking so long to properly thank him for being such a positive influence in my life. Mr. Olson is an Analytical Chemist at Eli Lilly & Co.
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