Michael's Museum has recently put me in touch with students and fellow teachers from my past. Here, in part, is a note from a student who was in the Gifted Education Program I administrated and taught some thirty years ago.

Mr. Horvich,

My wife took my children to the Chicago Children’s Museum this week, and mentioned to me that there was an exhibit donated by you, and thought the name of Michael Horvich might be familiar to me.  

It certainly is, because I was a participant in the T*A*G program at Hoffman School (District 34) and took several classes with you in 1981-1984 (my 4^th through 6^th grade years).  I remember various projects, including writing and hand-making a children’s book (which I still have, and have read to my son), designing a marketing campaign for an everyday object (I chose a die), playing with Mobius strips, and reading books from the Narnia chronicles and drawing illustrations of Turkish Delight. 

You melded learning, creativity, fun, and personal challenge into a package that I not only cherish, but have measured all learning experience throughout my academic and professional careers to those standards.  I also gained a combination of self-esteem, and a respect for the intelligence and creativity of others, that has become a core part of who I am today.  

So as I write this I hope you get a sense that in the series of dominoes that are life’s events, you were instrumental in pushing the right ones forward.  I am fortunate enough to say you were not the only force in this direction, but you were an important and influential one, and I very much thank you for being in my life at the right time and being a key guidepost on my path to knowledge and fulfillment.

I am delighted to see how you have extended your career and have taken an interest in your blog.  I wish you happiness and success in your various endeavors.

(And I can’t believe it’s been 30-or-so years!)

Feel free to correspond if you would like to share or want to know more.

Sincerely,

NB