Progressing through high school and college, Al Frisby learned about teaching from some of the best – and some not so good.
“One of my instructors at Metropolitan Junior College at 39th and McGee was a wonderful biology teacher,” says Frisby. “We called him ‘Batman’ because he liked to take students through caves. He really opened my eyes to biology as a career. I also had wonderful teachers at Stephen F. Austin University and Emporia State and a great mentor in my first year of teaching at Turner High School, Lloyd Fugate. First year teachers need mentors and he really helped in learning better ways to teach a course in biology.”
“Except for a few teachers, I didn’t have a good experience in high school. Most of the the teachers didn’t make things very interesting for me,” says Frisby, a 1964 graduate of William Chrisman High School. “And when I was a student teacher in Texas, the regular teacher didn’t have many labs and all she wanted me to do was lecture and I was disappointed in that. I wanted to have hands-on instruction for the kids.”
The lessons he learned – both good and bad – he certainly learned well and after 41 years in the classroom, he will be inducted into the Mid-America Education Hall of Fame at Kansas City Kansas Community College Saturday, Nov. 3.
A fund-raiser for the KCKCC Endowment Association, the 17th annual dinner and induction ceremonies are open to the public and reservations can be made by phone at 913-288-7166 or by e-mail to pmccartney@kckcc.edu.
For 30 years from 1972-2002, Frisby taught biology, AP biology, anatomy and physiology and chemistry at Shawnee Mission Northwest High School and added another six years teaching biology at Liberty High School.
In addition, he spent four years substituting in science classes in SM high schools along with teaching anatomy one summer at KCKCC and another summer teaching freshman biology at Rockhurst University.
However, some of his most interesting work came before he ever got to SM Northwest. He had not finished his first year of teaching at Turner when he received a draft notice.
“I needed a deferral to finish my first year and then on June 8, 1970, I was called to take a physical at Union Station. Instead, I was kidnapped so to speak. They took me right to Fort Leonard Wood. I had to call my wife and tell her I would not be home for a while.”
