Of course at that time, during the seventies, she always wore a dress and shoes like this...
But even though she was old and looked kind of sour, I don't think about her that way. She did experiments with us, and she had us bring things to present experiments to the class too. She took us to lunch and always required us to make at least one lap around the track after lunch before we returned to class. I especially remember measuring shadows on the pavement daily so that we could track the changing angle of the sun in the sky over time.
She was ahead of her time in many ways.
And it was because of her that my classmates participated in the very first Earth Day way back in 1972. She gave us a list of options for projects and we were required to complete one for a grade. For my project I chose to clean up a stretch of road that I passed regularly on my way to my piano teacher's house. There was a lot of trash being dumped there and I just picked it all up. I had to take before and after pictures to make a display, and at that time, that was the most difficult part of the project because cameras weren't digital and film actually had to be developed and it took more than one hour to get the pictures back. You also had to be sure to take up a whole roll before you could develop the film. I'm telling you, it was complicated.
And so today, on this 40th anniversary of Earth Day, I salute you, Mrs. Rutheford! You were a good science teacher.
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