CLAIRE LOEWENBERG

I just discovered this. Mrs. Loewenberg was clearly my favorite teacher over seven years at Central Beach Elementary School in Miami Beach. She was our half-day Special Resource Class teacher for the gifted three days a week from 4th through 6th grade in 1958-1961.

How I looked forward to her small class! We learned all kinds of things she thought up. She treated about a dozen of us with respect and was unfailingly even-tempered. She found Spanish textbooks for us for one of the three hours. I felt she was learning with us, but was a fast learner. Before the 1960 Presidential Election she presented us with the history of the elections In verse. I see now she might have written. She divided it into
parts for us to do a group reading for a school assembly.

She had us plan a road trip to anywhere we wanted. We were to map it, figure mileage, driving time, expenses for gas, meals and lodging, and keep a daily itinerary of what we saw and did with clippings of photos. I got to know AAA. This was long before Google Maps.

She edited the school newspaper, which was a mimeographed journal, and encouraged us to write short verse and articles and draw pictures. She gave me the ultimate compliment. I write a poem about a true story: my red tabby cat disappearing during hurricane warnings. The rhythm and rhyme came out so easily. It was really good. She already was going to use it, but she looked me in the eye and asked if I had written it.

I remember her beautiful handwriting on the blackboard, so flowing and even.

Im sorry I never went back to visit her, but our hours across the street in junior high school were the same. I see she was born two weeks later than my mother and lived three years longer. I wish I had found a way to stay in touch with her before Internet made it so easy. It looks like she had a good life.