Word: smolin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Expectorate -- to spit." Barry Smolin points to one of 20 vocabulary words he has written on the blackboard. The class titters...
...Gross, Mr. Smolin...
...Smolin, 27, graduated from Fairfax High himself in 1978. But his classroom reflects a taste for the cultural artifacts of earlier eras. Jimi Hendrix posters keep company with theater reviews from West Side Story. His unusual methods -- using song lyrics to teach literary themes, for instance -- are popular with students. But he fears he may soon wilt under the pressure to entertain. "My first year I used to come home hoarse," he says. "I can't keep up five shows a day and not get burned...
...ultimate satisfaction comes from the occasional student who, given the right nurturing, suddenly blossoms. Barry Smolin twinkles at the very thought of his "victory student." The Fairfax junior had a mother who was a junkie, a sister who was a prostitute and a father who had long ago abandoned the family. "I gave her a writing assignment, and she was brilliant," says Smolin. "She still had trouble, but she got into college and now she wants to be a writer." What keeps many teachers going is the conviction that somewhere out there, there are more victory students waiting...