Mr. Knoell must have done something right, as the teachers all seemed pretty satisfied from my perspective. That I never was in his office attests to something done right, I think. Whatever might have taken place in his office was for me a complete blank; the problems he must have dealt with were made pretty much invisible, but the product of the school via its teachers was the opposite. So, thanks to Mr. Knoell, who because he was so much older seemed like the disciplined father figure we didn't want to make mad. So we avoided him. I'm sure some classmates knew him well, I just didn't. Probably because I wasn't in the Honors group with whom he might have had more communication. We need more invisible but competent people like Mr. Knoell in our schools these days.
I was probably not alone in thinking of Mr. Knoell and Mr. Torgerson as authority figures out of a Disney cartoon. But particularly as there has not been a personal comment about Mr. Knoell, let me say that I think he was probably a pretty nice guy (unless you were in trouble). I often did the grocery shopping for my mother, while she waited in the car. I remember one day at the Lakeside Super Market I was in the produce section, and there was Mr. Knoell, across the vegetable stand from me. He knew who I was, said something pleasant, and got on with his shopping. I was a little startled to be recognized and spoken to more or less like a grown up, and never forgot his everyday kindness.
Art Hyland
Mr. Knoell must have done something right, as the teachers all seemed pretty satisfied from my perspective. That I never was in his office attests to something done right, I think. Whatever might have taken place in his office was for me a complete blank; the problems he must have dealt with were made pretty much invisible, but the product of the school via its teachers was the opposite. So, thanks to Mr. Knoell, who because he was so much older seemed like the disciplined father figure we didn't want to make mad. So we avoided him. I'm sure some classmates knew him well, I just didn't. Probably because I wasn't in the Honors group with whom he might have had more communication. We need more invisible but competent people like Mr. Knoell in our schools these days.
Helene Solheim
I was probably not alone in thinking of Mr. Knoell and Mr. Torgerson as authority figures out of a Disney cartoon. But particularly as there has not been a personal comment about Mr. Knoell, let me say that I think he was probably a pretty nice guy (unless you were in trouble). I often did the grocery shopping for my mother, while she waited in the car. I remember one day at the Lakeside Super Market I was in the produce section, and there was Mr. Knoell, across the vegetable stand from me. He knew who I was, said something pleasant, and got on with his shopping. I was a little startled to be recognized and spoken to more or less like a grown up, and never forgot his everyday kindness.
Helene Solheim