Mrs. Vesco was my 7th grade homeroom teacher during the 1960-61 school year. I believe that she retired in 1963. Mrs. Vesco was the first teacher who really pressed me to work harder and focus on accuracy and completeness. She set a high standard when it came to written work and I remember receiving graded papers from her with comments in red such as "confusing!" and "incomplete sentence." At the end of the paper she would state: "Re-write for a better grade. This is not your best work!" Years later I realized that this is how one learns to write clearly and correctly - by careful editing and re-writing. At the time, I thought: "Why is Mrs. Vesco making me do this over? I guess she just wants to torture me!" In this regard, I was learning to write whether I wanted to or not. Mrs. Elsie Vesco took the time and made the effort to assure that her students learned the basic skills that they needed to succeed. She knew that we would not always enjoy the process and she did not spare our feelings to preserve our precious little egos. She wanted us to gain self esteem through real accomplishment rather than empty praise. These qualities made her an excellent and valuable teacher and she leaves a legacy of students who benefited greatly from her efforts. We can never have enough teachers like Elsie Vesco.
Steven S Kane (1966)
Mrs. Vesco was my 7th grade homeroom teacher during the 1960-61 school year. I believe that she retired in 1963. Mrs. Vesco was the first teacher who really pressed me to work harder and focus on accuracy and completeness. She set a high standard when it came to written work and I remember receiving graded papers from her with comments in red such as "confusing!" and "incomplete sentence." At the end of the paper she would state: "Re-write for a better grade. This is not your best work!" Years later I realized that this is how one learns to write clearly and correctly - by careful editing and re-writing. At the time, I thought: "Why is Mrs. Vesco making me do this over? I guess she just wants to torture me!" In this regard, I was learning to write whether I wanted to or not. Mrs. Elsie Vesco took the time and made the effort to assure that her students learned the basic skills that they needed to succeed. She knew that we would not always enjoy the process and she did not spare our feelings to preserve our precious little egos. She wanted us to gain self esteem through real accomplishment rather than empty praise. These qualities made her an excellent and valuable teacher and she leaves a legacy of students who benefited greatly from her efforts. We can never have enough teachers like Elsie Vesco.