TEACHER'S CORNER: TEACHER SPECIALIZES IN TELLING STORIES

Lee Pasborg says teachers are specialized storytellers.

"I try to enliven what the text I'm teaching is describing by expanding on it and making the students want to know what happens next," he said. "Frankly, some lessons are easier to do that with than others."

Pasborg has been teaching at Nell Holcomb School since 1983. At one time, he taught a self-contained seventh-grade class, but now he teaches history to sixth, seventh and eighth-graders.

"I tend to be rather demanding of my students," Passbord said. "I believe they are capable of much more than they realize: It's my job to draw it out of them."

Pasborg said his students most enjoy unusual subject matter and teaching strategies. "Aztec human sacrifice seems to hold the students' attention a little more than Article I, Section 17 of the Constitution," he said. "Because our school is in a rural area, I can take the class to the outdoor classroom and fire off a few blank loads with my flintlock rifle. Besides making a satisfying boom with accompanying smoke, it gives the kids an idea of how hard it was for the early settlers to hunt game or fight wars with such weapons. It isn't always easy, but I try to make history exciting and interesting for them."

The greatest gratification Pasborg gets from teaching comes from seeing and hearing from former students. It's hard to believe, he said, but they do grow up and have careers, marriages, babies -- the works. He said once in a while students tell him that he made a difference in their lives.

When he's not teaching, Pasborg shares his home with his wife, Jerri, and a rather large stray cat, Cocoa. His hobbies include his Macintosh computer, astronomy, ancient Greek and Roman coins and staying alive on his motorcycle.