Nalley a Sharp Sherpa
Outside the CSS community, you’d probably be hard pressed to find a couple of seventh graders eager to spend a weekend with their math teacher. Outside the CSS community it might be almost impossible to find a couple of parents thrilled to spend a weekend with the math teacher. But CSSers who know Professor Chance O. Nalley understand and undoubtedly envy those of us who got to enjoy four days in the Colorado Rockies with this smart, funny, kind teacher.
A weekend camping and hiking in Colorado with Professor Nalley was one of the prizes offered last year at a silent auction and raffle designed to raise money for CSS. Professor Nalley agreed to take the top auction bidder and the raffle winner to Colorado, each student with one parent.
At first it looked like we would be roughing it when Professor Nalley handed us our backpacks, tents and toiletry bags. “If it doesn’t fit in this,” he said holding up the three-inch toiletry bag, “don’t take it.” We wouldn’t need much anyway, he explained, since there would be no warm showers. So much for the body lotion and hair dryer.
When we arrived at our cabin things started to look up. Although the single-room log cabin didn’t have a kitchen or bathroom, it did have a wood burning stove for heat, bunk beds and a table with chairs. Not bad. Then as Chance taught the kids to chop wood (without chopping fingers or toes) and challenged them to make a fire with only one match each, he began discussing dinner options with the moms. Salmon, marinated tuna, shrimp, chicken or beef kabobs…All this and more he had brought up from Denver and was ready to cook over the campfire. This pretty much set the tone for the weekend. Life skills training for the kids, feeling like guests at the home of the most wonderful host for the moms.
Watching Professor Nalley maneuver to make sure we got a lot of family photos and hearing him remind the kids to wish us a happy mother’s day was heartwarming. “Math is secondary,” said the award-winning math professor. “I want to teach the kids to be human beings.” But the moms learned as much as the kids on this adventure. The professor taught us how to act if we encountered a bear or a mountain lion. “Don’t turn around. Face the lion and move your arms up and down at your sides. Make noise. You don’t want to look like easy prey.” No problem. We assured him we would never be far enough away from him to do anything but cheer him on as he flailed his arms and looked tough enough to scare the lion away.
While New York and Denver enjoyed balmy spring days, we had snow ball fights up in the mountains and trudged over rocky, icy trails to see snow capped mountains in between the whitest clouds, standing majestic against the bluest skies.
Although Professor Nalley kept everyone, kids and moms, laughing, he also engendered some generational competition. The kids always wanted to be with their beloved teacher, much to the chagrin of the parents who loved spending adult time with this smart, engaging, entertaining companion. But all generations came together in the evenings to laugh, read, play Jenga and 21.
At the end of the weekend, the kids realized they had had a ball without I- pods, game boys, computer games or cell phones. The moms realized they had been happily free of newspapers, work and worries for four fabulous days.
With thanks from the families of Jordan Witzel and Anna Gulko.
