Insight: To Miss Silverman, wherever you are

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor

In the fall of 1968, members of the Rush-Henrietta Class of 1971 started classes at the brand-new high school and life was never the same.

In 1968, Ruth Silverman taught English at
Rush-Henrietta High School in Henrietta,
New York where Ed Pierce was one of
her students. COURTESY PHOTO 

We were now sophomores who were seeking ways to navigate our way around the building and adjust to more challenging courses and eyeing successful futures.

Looking over my class schedule, I was less than thrilled. I had drawn Miss Bodak for Study Hall first thing in the morning, followed by World History with Miss Johnson, Biology with Mr. Gordon, PE with Coach Sykela, and Sophomore English with Miss Silverman before lunch. Then in the afternoon I had Sophomore Chorus with Mr. Hobin and wrapped up each day with Algebra with Mr. Luce.

A few weeks in, my homework had increased substantially, and I was falling behind in both Biology and Algebra. I also found myself at odds in Sophomore English with a fellow student named Joe Mastrantonio, who never failed to take the opposite viewpoint of mine during lively class discussions of books we were reading. And even though I was terribly shy, a few pretty girls in my homeroom were catching my eye.

After each school day ended, I would ride the school bus home and then set out on my bicycle to deliver the afternoon daily newspaper throughout my neighborhood.

If time permitted before dinner, I’d work on my homework and a good chunk of that involved reading novels for Sophomore English. Our teacher, Miss Ruth Silverman, was in her second year of teaching at our school and had recently graduated from college. She wasn’t much older than we were and as the school year went on, I discovered that she listened to the same music students my age did and was very knowledgeable about current events and popular culture of that era.

Although it was hard to read as many books as she wanted us to, I found her choices for us to be enlightening and thought-provoking. We started with “A Separate Peace” by John Knowles, which takes place 15 years after a tragic betrayal at boys’ boarding school when a former student returns to deal with his past actions and seeking forgiveness for hurting a friend. Then we read “The Red Badge of Courage” by Stephen Crane, a novel set during the Civil War about a young soldier who flees from the field of battle and overcome with shame, he longs for a wound – a "red badge of courage" to make up for his cowardice. Right before Thanksgiving we read “Flowers For Algernon” by Daniel Keyes about a mentally deficient man who undergoes an operation that turns him into a genius but also introduces him to heartache.

With each novel that our class read and subsequent discussions, Miss Silverman was broadening our intellectual horizons and turning each of us into young adults. I felt like she understood what it was like to be a teenager growing up in the 1960s overshadowed by the Vietnam War, violence and political assassinations, the Space Race and civil rights.

Over spring break, Miss Silverman had us read J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings,” a fantasy novel about Middle Earth and creatures called hobbits. It wasn’t a typical book I was expecting her to assign for a school class and that made it all more enjoyable for me. She also told me after class one day that I had significant potential as a writer, and she envisioned my work being read by other people.

Our final project was to create a multi-media presentation and show it to the class and Miss Silverman. Coach Sykela let me use some slides he had taken of a Rush-Henrietta basketball player Bill Smith, who had gone on to play for Syracuse University. I used a slide projector and a carousel to move the slides back and forth to a musical background. I was stuck for a song to play for more than a week when I heard “Sooliamon” by Neil Diamond played on WBBF-AM radio. I liked the beat and tempo and selected that one to accompany my slide show.

When my project was shown to our class, I was bombarded with classmate questions about what meaning that I was trying to achieve, why I picked those slides for the project, and to interpret what the song meant and how it tied into the basketball player. Miss Silverman said she was impressed, and my confidence soared when she gave me an “A” for that project.

Miss Silverman moved on after my sophomore year. I asked but was told she was teaching elsewhere. Eventually I graduated from high school and earned a college degree before embarking on a professional career as a journalist in 1975.

I have tried without luck to find Miss Silverman for decades just to express my gratitude and share with her that she inspired me to earn a living as a writer. Unable to find her using multiple resources and technology, I may never be able to say thanks to her in person, so this column will have to suffice.

To Ruth Silverman – wherever you are – thank you. It seems the older I get, the more I appreciate what you did for me.