Sallyport - The Magazine of Rice University - Winter 2002
Sallyport - The Magazine of Rice University - Winter 2002
Sallyport - The Magazine of Rice University - Winter 2002
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Welcome Back, Mrs. Rozek - Who's Who<br />
<strong>Winter</strong> <strong>2002</strong><br />
VOL.58, NO.2<br />
Welcome Back, Mrs. Rozek<br />
Who’s your favorite teacher?<br />
For Ally McBeal star Peter<br />
MacNicol, it was Barbara<br />
Rozek, his 10th-grade world<br />
history teacher, who since<br />
1999 has worked at <strong>Rice</strong> as<br />
an editor <strong>of</strong> the Jefferson<br />
Davis Papers.<br />
choice.<br />
<strong>The</strong> duo, along with several<br />
other celebrities and their<br />
favorite teachers, was<br />
featured in a Target<br />
advertising campaign that<br />
appeared in national<br />
magazines. <strong>The</strong> campaign<br />
promotes Target’s “Take<br />
Charge <strong>of</strong> Education”<br />
program, which donates a<br />
portion <strong>of</strong> charges made on<br />
Target credit cards to<br />
schools <strong>of</strong> the customers’<br />
Rozek, who earned her doctorate in history from <strong>Rice</strong> in 1995, was notified<br />
<strong>of</strong> her selection by MacNicol last winter, and in April she and her husband<br />
were flown to Los Angeles for a photo shoot with the Emmy-winning actor.<br />
She was thrilled to be reunited with her former student, but it wasn’t that or<br />
the star treatment she received that was the best part <strong>of</strong> the experience.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> best thing was getting that phone call telling me somebody I taught 25<br />
years ago thought I was a special teacher,” Rozek said. “I just floated on a<br />
cloud for days. Most teachers don’t <strong>of</strong>ten get that kind <strong>of</strong> praise.”<br />
Rozek taught MacNicol at a Dallas-area high school in 1969 and 1970<br />
when she was a “rookie” teacher fresh out <strong>of</strong> Southern Methodist<br />
<strong>University</strong> with her master’s degree.<br />
Of teaching, Rozek said, “<strong>The</strong>re’s nothing like it. <strong>The</strong>re’s something about<br />
being in the classroom and the old cliché about seeing the lightbulb go <strong>of</strong>f<br />
in students.” She reiterated that teachers rarely get a pat on the back from<br />
their students, “and that’s why receiving a book or getting a phone call or a<br />
letter from students means so much.”<br />
She admitted to not watching Ally McBeal before learning <strong>of</strong> her honor as<br />
MacNicol’s favorite teacher. But she remembered her former student. He<br />
gave her a book, Civilization by Kenneth Clark.<br />
http://www.rice.edu/sallyport/<strong>2002</strong>/winter/whoswho/mrsrozek.html (1 <strong>of</strong> 3) [10/30/2009 11:00:42 AM]
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