For Ms. Oaks

The Vermeer
During my senior year of high school, I had an English teacher who asked my class read a book about a Vermeer painting. It was an easy book to read, but it had a point. The book was six short stories all focusing on a different owner the Vermeer painting. She had us read the book to teach us about perspectives and the different perspectives, ideas, and opinions people have on the same thing. Her goal was for us to be able to come up with different perspectives on the same issue. She then had us find a Vermeer painting to write a short story about. While we were looking at some online, she showed me one of her favorites. She said she liked it because it could be a self portrait of Vermeer doing work, but it also could be someone else completely. She loved the idea that there was a story behind the painting, and we could only guess what that story was based off of the little snapshot given to us.

On September 4, my little high school back in Colorado lost one of its best teachers. After battling with cancer for three years, she unfortunately passed away.

Denise Oaks-Moffet had the easiest English class at Summit School. But, it wasn’t her assignments, required readings, tests, essays, or grading methods that made the class easy. In fact, all of the above were actually fairly difficult and more challenging than most of the assignments received at a college. What made Mrs. Oaks-Moffett’s class easy was her passion for teaching, the way she presented material, and her ability to make her class engaging, interesting, and inspiring for her students. Even the most difficult thing in the world can be easy when you love it.

Admittedly, it is kind of hard to believe that high school aged teenagers genuinely enjoy reading William Faulkner – let’s face it; however brilliant he may be, he did not write Harry Potter. Yet, getting students to love what they learn is one of the rare strengths and qualities that Mrs. Oaks possessed. She was unique, clever, and creative: she used the Matrix and The Graduate to prove a legitimate point. Through her discussions of literature, philosophy, current events, and even movies, students learn material in a manner that is so effortless, they think to themselves, “This is so easy. I must not be learning anything.” I guarantee you, they are proven wrong in their first college class when they not only recall what Mrs. Oaks taught them, but also use it.

In education, there is a general concern that students memorize material instead of really learn it. Mrs. Oaks figured out that in order to make students learn something, they have to think about it first. Her ability to connect on an individual level with each student explains how she made an impact on such a wide variety of people. Students from the class of 2003 talk about her with as much enthusiasm and praise as the students who just graduated in May. It doesn’t matter if a student is an athlete or a debater, a band geek or an aspiring rock star, the Homecoming Queen or the kid who hated school because Mrs. Oaks found a way to talk to and engage everyone. Even if she couldn't make a student like or have interest in a topic, she could make a student talk and think about it, and this inevitably leads to true learning.

For me personally, Mrs. Oaks was an amazing mentor who has an everlasting influence on my life. She taught me how to look at the world with a new perspective and to look at life in the big picture. She always encouraged me to get out there and not only see, but truly experience the world. When I saw her last December right after I had studied in Vienna for the first time, she could not have been more thrilled that I chose to do so.



Although her passing saddens me, I am glad that she is not suffering anymore after three rough years. I mostly worry and pray for her family, especially the two children, and all those close to her back home. I am a little upset I can't be home for her memorial, but I think she would be happy that I am here in a foreign country seeing the world. So, in honor of Mrs. Oaks-Moffet's passion for knowledge, new experiences, and seeing foreign places, I did two things for her in Vienna today. The first one was to light a candle for her in St. Stephen's Dom, one of the most famous and beautiful cathedrals in Vienna and Europe. I think she would have liked that. I also am taking an Art History class, and I am required to do a presentation about a piece of art in one of the museums in Vienna. I picked a painting that hangs in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, one of the most famous art museums in downtown Vienna because I think I can teach something about perspectives...I picked the Vermeer.