In Memory

Arnold Biermann (Teacher)

Arnold Biermann (Teacher)



 
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01/22/13 03:21 PM #1    

Jerry Owen (Owen)

Coach Biermann will always be remembered, I hope, for being a passionate and gifted teacher of mathmatics, but also as our basketball coach who led those fledgling teams that scored Sammamish's first precious victories over our hated crosstown snooty rivals, Bellevue High!  Those were some of the most memorable events of my high school years.  RIP Arnie Biermann.


03/04/13 06:10 AM #2    

Art Hyland

Our sophomore year, my first year on the team, Coach decided to bring  a record player into the locker room before the games.  Imagine, music being played before a basketball game !  it was such a unique move, it made the papers.  I think he played the same music from the Harlem Globetrotters.  Of course it was an attempt to loosen us up.  I liked it.  

Before he came to Sammamish he coached at Montesano, and so every year we had a non-conference game with them.  In our junior year, at Montesano, we played the worst basketball we ever could have played.  It was just one of those days.  Of course it was a long trip then through Tacoma and South, and that probably had some influence.  I recall the even longer trip back to Bellevue; I thought we'd never get home.  No one said anything the entire trip.  Fortunately, that was a rare occurence but a teachable moment as they say.  You have to learn how to lose as well, but figure out how to win again.  Which we did.

Basketball with Arnie taught us a lot, and I'm sad to say that sports in general seem to be one of the few remaining true learning experiences left in schools today.  You have winners, losers and all kinds of objetive statistics are kept for all to see and compare.  Why, you're even encouraged to compare.  Everything else taught in k-12 these days seems to be relative or political.  I know because I'm on a small school board in WA.  (I have no kids in the school, just so you know.)

We were in school at a very great time, and we need to bring back the discipline, standards and learning culture that I believe was evident back at the Sammamish of our day.

Really liked Arnie's Geometry class; he was deliberate, logical, and held you to a standard of excellence.  What concepts.  I know there are still teachers like Arnie, but too few and far between, and too hampered by state and federal bureaucracy. 


06/22/13 08:34 PM #3    

Marvin Knox

Is it just me or does anyone else remember Arnie for saying "AT THIS PARTICULAR TIME" quite often?

Kind of a funny thing to remembr about a person, I know.

But it seems that every so often over the last 50 years, when I heard the phrase "at this particular time" - I thought fondly of Mr. Bierman  and my high school algebra class. 

He was one of the great teachers for sure.  I'm sure that he is missed by many. 


10/07/13 10:57 AM #4    

Helene Solheim

I think Mr. Biermann taught math like a basketball coach with a sense of drama, and I think I recall as Marvin does his use of "at this particular time", in either of two ways--the first, "at this particular time" take out pencil and paper for a quiz, and the second, "at this particular time", you really don't need to know that.

Didn't Mr. Biermann always wear "lucky" socks on game days?--yellow, maybe, or plaid?

When Sammamish first opened (in our 9th grade), he had school pencils made up to sell for 5 cents (I had two of these for years).  But they had two flaws (which would make them priceless now):  one that he had anticipated what our school colors would be before we had voted on them, and the pencils were made in medium green and black.  Where would we be now if SHS colors were medium green and black??  The second flaw was that they spelled Sammamish with FOUR m's:  "Sammammish".  Does anybody still have any of these?

 

 


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