Math Teacher Geiser Back in the Math Classroom

Monica Sosa-Hernandez, Staff Writer, Advanced Journalism

“About eight years ago, I had an accident on my farm, and I crushed my leg. They put a plate in which screws into the bone to help my bone to heal. It recently became infected, and I had a bone infection. So what they had to do is pick out the plate and screws and scrape out the infection. I also got a heavy dose of very expensive antibiotics,” said veteran math teacher Harry Geiser. 

“That’s why I missed school,” he said.

Geiser is not new to surgeries, as he has had eight surgeries in his lifetime. This recent surgery was approximately an hour long. 

 Though he is back in the classroom, Geiser has not completely recovered. This means that he still has trouble getting back into the motions of the routine he once had. 

“I was fortunate enough to have a great substitute, a former math teacher from Notre Dame who is retired now.” 

“Linda Kadingo came in and took over my calculus classes.  She did a bang up job with calculus, geometry and advanced algebra. She did a good job, so adjusting was just a matter of observing the students and figuring out what made them work as hard as they did for her,” said Geiser.

With about two weeks back under his belt, he is feeling better each day and getting into the “swing of things.” 

Being away made Gieser a bit nostalgic, and he recalled the old days when he was teaching at Premontre High School, which later became today’s Notre Dame Academy. 

“I used to think of myself as a teacher from Premontre because I taught from 1966 to 1990, which is 24 years. But then, all of a sudden I realized that now we are going on our 30th year of Notre Dame, and I still think of the big part of my career is Premontre, but really the big part of my career is Notre Dame Academy. That was a shocking realization,” he said.

Over the years, Geiser believes students have gotten more and more eager to learn. He loves meeting new students every year and being able to not only help them grow and develop in their classes but also as people in the community. 

This is one of his highlights during the years he has taught at NDA, but nothing compares to the pride he feels for having his son here with him, following in his steps in becoming a teacher.  

“The best highlight was probably the fact that my son is teaching here. We get along better now than we did when he was younger. I’m proud of him,” beamed Geiser.

The reason why Geiser has such an attachment to Notre Dame Academy is because he really likes the challenge of it all. He is also a bit afraid of not doing anything and admits to being a workaholic all his life. 

In other words, he’s not quite sure what could or would happen if he were not in the classroom. The unknown, he said, is scary.

“I never want to miss another day of school. I don’t think it’s fair to families who are paying 6,000 bucks for tuition to have a non-teacher,” said Geiser, with determination in every word.