TEACHER'S CORNER: QUESTION: 4X4. ANSWER: YOU HAVE TO BE 16 TO DRIVE ONE

Teachers call it association -- linking new facts to those already known. For a third-grader in Lois Emerine's class, his colorful association was just a way to remember the answer to a multiplication problem.

He said, "4X4. You have to be 16 to drive one."

But it stuck with his teacher as an example of the creativity of students.

Emerine teaches at Kelly Elementary School. She has been teaching 30 years. In that time she has accumulated a variety of anecdotes. She enjoys creative writing and has had several articles, including ones drawn from her teaching experiences, published in magazines.

"I once started to wake a child I thought was asleep and discovered his hands clasp in front of him. He soon raised his head ready to do the work we were preparing to do," Emerine said. "This incident became an article on prayer in school and was published in an inspirational magazine."

In addition to writing, Emerine enjoys handicrafts and oil painting.

"I think my special interest in these activities has helped me be a better teacher," she said. "Growing up in the fast-paced world today, children need a chance to retreat, unwind and find a beautiful way to express themselves. I hope I have had an influence in that corner of their lives."

Emerine earned a bachelor's degree from Murray State University and a master's degree from Southeast Missouri State University.

"My third year of teaching was spent with first-graders fresh from home -- no kindergarten, Headstart, or nursery school," she said. "And I had no experience at that level. I was having a terrible time teaching 41 children to shape a `c' and turn it into an `a.' I explained how to hold the pencil, where to make the letter and then turned to make one on the blackboard.

"When I turned back around it appeared that every child in the class was left-handed. They were trying to do exactly as I did, and I am left-handed. That fall I learned to manuscript with both hands. One of my most gratifying experiences was seeing that group read from a primer."

All memories are not pleasant. "A first-grader once told me he saw smoke in the hall. I attempted to assure him it was just the way the sunlight was shining in. Very soon he approached the subject again and with real seriousness told me I'd better look. He was right, and we watched our school at Blodgett burn to the ground.

"Little ones shivered and cried because their coats and supplies burned, and they were afraid their parents would be angry with them. The fears soon changed as parents rushed to us. Then they cried because they didn't have a school. Parents cried. Those who thought such a thing would be funny cried."

Emerine's teaching career began a little more than a decade after high school. "Five and a half days a week I had done the same thing at the same time each day. I finally came to realize I could not live this way for perhaps 40 or more years. Hesitantly, I quit my job in 1959 and enrolled at Murray State University, searching for my place. I think I found it."