High School: Mr. Nicholas - History Teacher

Mr. Nicholas was perhaps my favorite teacher of all. He really understood how to motivate his students. He really knew how to make us want to learn. He had a flair for making a dull subject seem interesting, and we all had a good time besides.

He taught several different classes while I was in high school, and I took them all. For once, I was attentive, I sat up straight, and I even respected the man (which is something that I can only say about two or three teachers in my entire sentence to high school).

I clearly remember one of his lectures. He was talking about the Egyptian pyramids, and passed out some handouts which included many pictures and drawings. He started talking, slowly at first, then with more and more excitement. At first, he talked in what was almost a whisper, which forced the entire class to be quiet. We had to strain to hear every word.

Suddenly, he yelled. He flailed his hands. He jumped up on desks and stood on a chair. He did all kinds of acrobatics just to make his point. It certainly livened up an otherwise dull day.

Mr. Nicholas introduced me to board wargames, when one day he pulled out a box which contained five games titled "Pre-Stages Masterpack". Each of these games simulated a different battle from the ancient world. Included was a Greek Campaign, a Roman battle, an ancient Egyptian battle and a few others.

We spent the whole semester playing those games. At first, we didn’t understand what he was trying to accomplish. After a few weeks, however, we learned the rules, loosened up and began to have a good time. We started to understand a little more about the ancient world, because Mr. Nicholas used those games to explain certain concepts of war and peace to us.

We played several other types of games, including Risk and Nuclear Destruction. In Nuclear Destruction, each student in the class controlled one country in the world. The country had factories with which to build either missiles or anti-missiles. Missiles could be fired at other countries. Anti-missiles shot down incoming missiles.

Alliances could be formed and broken up at will. Communications between the players was restricted to short written messages.

We managed to play two or three games of Nuclear Destruction a semester. It was fun, and Mr. Nicholas took advantage of that fun to teach us some things about modern politics.

We played several games of Nuclear Destruction, which I usually won. Some of the other students in the class drew me some pictures parodying my gaming abilities.