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Noel Barnes posted a condolence
Friday, May 10, 2024
My friends and I had Paul for our freshman writing class at Loyola University where he was a grad student. His vivacious teaching was awesome and made our transition to college seamless. He managed to bolster our spirits and make it seem that we could learn and do what was required for college learning. I had the extraordinary good luck of connecting with him and his wonderful friend Helen Kelley in the last few years. His legacy will certainly live on in all the students and lives that he touched.
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Love, Dan & Noel Barnes planted a tree in memory of Paul Baltz
Friday, May 10, 2024
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Sorry for the lateness of this but hoping to remember Paul and his wonderful contributions to so many students. Join in honoring their life - plant a memorial tree
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Jan Look posted a condolence
Saturday, October 14, 2023
I came to teach at Stagg High School in 1976. What an amazing English Department of dedicated teachers! There were many teaching personalities and many "things" to learn.
Paul Baltz stands out as one of the teachers who truly had a "new way" of teaching. The Baltz teaching strategies engaged students in critical thinking the IRQ way, reading with a comment and a question mark, and writing with depth and insight. Paul and I had many professional conversations about students on how to teach and how to make a difference. I used many of his IRQ strategies woven into my own to get students to think and write. Our conversations always continued into how to make a difference in teaching and with students.
I finished my teaching in District 230 at Sandburg, retiring in 2007 and then continued at Joliet Junior College. Today I posted the Research Paper Project for my students including....what are your Issue Raising Questions (IRQs) for continued research in your future career. So, I just wanna say...Paul, what a difference you have made as a teacher both for teachers and for students...your legacy lives on!
Jan Look
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Bob Fabrizio posted a condolence
Saturday, October 14, 2023
In addition to being an excellent teacher, Paul was a dear friend and a man of many talents.
Over the years at Stagg he helped to create a Study Skills program for student-athletes He assisted in the weekly preparation of the football squad by presenting the opponents plays to the varsity team at practices.
Over the years, Paul took the time to write and send letters of encouragement to me long after he left Stagg. I certainly appreciated his friendship, his sense of humor and his commitment to his students at Stagg High School.
May he Rest In Peace
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Trish Fairbanks, Edward Hospital planted a tree in memory of Paul Baltz
Friday, October 13, 2023
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In memory of Paul, with deepest sympathy for his family Join in honoring their life - plant a memorial tree
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Bryan Smith posted a condolence
Friday, October 13, 2023
I had the fortunate opportunity to have Mr. Baltz for English my Senior year. I didn’t think I made much of an impression on him seeing that my mentality at that point was just to get through high school and move on. But when I came back to Stagg to coach before becoming a teacher Mr. Baltz was one of the first teachers who greeted me with this enthusiasm that I immediately remembered from class. Of course the first thing I wanted to do was to apologize for being one of those kids in class, but his response is what has always stuck with me. He said, “It’s not who you were, but who you will become.”
After that he would send me handwritten notes, as I’m sure he did for a lot of people, that was always an uplifting and motivating message that looking back was maybe the single greatest gesture anyone could’ve done. So great that I still have every single one of those notes.
They always say that as a teacher you never really get to see the impact that you have on your students so I would like to take this moment to say that Mr. Baltz had and will always have a lasting impact on my life as a student, teacher, and adult.
J
Jan Parsons Whitehead posted a condolence
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Mr Baltz was an amazing English teacher, who dragged our reluctant minds to a higher plain. He was tough but caring, with a wry sense of humor and a quick wit. I still remember him with affection, even after 45 years.
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Don May posted a condolence
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Dear friends and family of Paul Baltz,
I was a student of Mr. Baltz in the graduating class of 1987. High school is a strange time for teenagers, and the inclination to find your own path while not accepting the one laid out for you by society while also being overwhelmed by biochemistry makes for a poor learning environment. I was lucky enough to have a group of teachers who cared and invested in their students at Stagg High School. But Mr. Baltz was an outlier even in that group.
Others will go into detail about the IRQ and how to think critically. Instead, I choose to tell the story about the time he saw me upset during the zero hour before classes started. I was thrown out of the library while actually doing my homework for putting my feet up on the chair. He immediately spun me around, stormed into the library, told the librarian that if you don't throw students out for putting their "ass" on chairs, why would you throw out one for feet? I was too scared to put my feet back on the chair for at least a minutes, but as he glared at her, my feet went back up, he said "hmph" and stormed back to his class. I've never forgotten his passion for learning, doing your best and not tolerating less than that.
As a side note, my friends and I would occasionally finish his IRQ assignment and then do more, to both gamify the "fridge" awards as well as submitting an anonymous homework making the IRQ as funny and ridiculous as possible. His way of teaching drove intellectual curiosity and creativity, skills which everyone can use today. Even as I type this, I can't believe I was so well prodded, enabled, and tricked into doing more homework than what was required.
Today, I'll pay homage to Mr. Baltz by performing his annual first day of school "magic trick" at my office. I'll replicate the time he put a piece of yellow paper first in a trash can, followed by a pink one. Magically, I'll pull out the pink one first, then the yellow saying I transformed yellow to pink and pink to yellow - TADA. I'll follow that with a very loud slap to my forehead, and exclaim "it's time to forge a HEAD." I might even read some Charles Dodgson novels this evening.
I share these stories to let you know that almost 40 years ago, I still remember Mr. Baltz. As close friends and family, you may have grief in your loss, joy in his release from suffering, or a will to wonder what it is all about. He had a gift from God and he used that to the best of his ability to teach students and push them towards growth. I am grateful for that as it had a shaping influence on me, and I hope you celebrate him together.
Don May
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Wendy Meek posted a condolence
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Paul was my teacher and my brother's teacher for AP Honors English at Stagg High School. He was like no other. Paul cared so much for his students and even developed friendships with them and often times their families; Paul was a dear friend to both of my parents for many years. I'll never forget how he always remembered my birthday (the same as Robert Frost's) and wrote personal letters of encouragement and praise to me throughout the years; one of his proudest praise letters was when I got hired as a teacher in District 230. Photos he took of me still hang on the wall of my parent's home. And I vividly remember him raving positively over something I said in his English class one day, "What's right is right and what's wrong is wrong"! I will always remember Paul fondly and cherish his uniqueness and kindness. I imagine he and my late father are having a fantastic reunion right now in Paradise.
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Laurel Osterman Kaiser planted a tree in memory of Paul Baltz
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
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Paul was my favorite teacher He believed in me and loved my questioning mind. He came to visit my garden in the woods. Join in honoring their life - plant a memorial tree
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Donald MacGregor posted a condolence
Monday, October 9, 2023
It was a priviledge to know Paul. It was an unlikely friendship. If you consider that the two of us taught different subjects: Paul was an English teacher and I was a Business Education teacher. How would these two individuals ever hit it off. I still don't remember why but I know how it progressed and ended. We agreed on our love for Stagg High School. We both spent our entire teaching careers there. We conversed on so many subjects I can't begin to list them. Paul retired a year before me and his parting comment to me was to "make my last year a victory lap." I took his advice and never looked back. Until I moved away from the area in 2006 we would meet once a week for breakfast and continue our friendship. I remember he would give me a ride to school from time-to-time. As I entered his car he would always warn me against stepping on his valuable papers which usually were scattered all over the floor of his car. One year I had a homeroom in Paul's classroom and the first time I came to his desk I couldn't see the top of it. I remember carefully picking up all the papers I needed to make room for my belongings but would always return his "mess" as I lovingly called it to their proper place. Even when we were separated by 150+ miles in the last 15 years we kept in touch by telephone or email and I would periodically meet Paul at The Patio for lunch. I will miss his wit and insight on so many things. God speed my friend.
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Dino Pappas posted a condolence
Monday, October 9, 2023
Found out earlier this weekend on my FB feed from one of my high school instructors Carol Czworniak, that a great teacher, a great man, a great leader Paul Baltz passed away recently.
I've had a day or two now to collect my thoughts and reflect on memories of those years 1993-1997 and beyond. Here goes...
My first recollection of The Paul Baltz (an explanation here in a second) was when I met him as a customer at my father's restaurant in Brookfield circa 1990. He would come for weekend Breakfast mostly. I think he came not only for breakfast but to support our family business and my cousins who were servers at the restaurant (Brookfield Restaurant). He would always have a book with him and this quirky, happiness interacting with people, taking the room in, but at the same time ok with immersion into the solitude of the mind and what the book was bringing out in his mind. That's quite a feat, being in a room full of people, taking it all in, but at the same time being able to detach into your own mind, your own world with reading as the conduit.
I'd see Paul from time to time around Stagg High School and at the restaurant. We'd chat and he'd ask about my cousins always checking in and tracking their lives and careers. He enjoyed and had a passion for photography. He'd show up at sporting events, community events and events at the school and snap photos capturing some precious moments. He'd share those photos with his students and with the community.
I would later have the privilege of having THE PAUL as my senior year Honor's English instructor. I remember the summer before school started receiving this big, hulking binder looking book with an orange tinted top, a picture of Amos Alonzo Stagg on it and text like IRQ on it. WTF? Was this required reading? Was this optional reading? What was an IRQ? Are IRQ's contagious?
I came to find out that IRQ's are very, very contagious. In fact, it's one of the most contagious things out there. Once you ask a tough question and critically think, it becomes very contagious.
IRQ stands for Issue Raising Question. You see, English is typically a class where you read a couple books per semester. You discuss the book. You write a report. You don't think much of it, and you move onto the next book. That's it, that's the class.
THE PAUL's class was much different. Paul identified early on that there was a significant lack of critical thinking, critical analysis in our school, in our community and in our society. How does one stimulate the mind, when confined by the institution and by society?
THE PAUL'S solution was to teach the art of the question, namely the Issue Raising Question (IRQ). He created a volume, a blueprint how to do that called the IRQ Instrument. This text was his life's work by taking us through the process of critical thinking using historical works, student published pieces and guidelines. Take an issue. Glance at it from 30,000 feet. Then, break down the fundamental components by asking hard questions looking for meaning. Rinse and repeat exploring the issue question by question to gain awareness and knowledge.
I recently thought about THE PAUL when I was writing slides for an upcoming presentation for the Louisiana Chiropractors. The slide was on pattern recognition and how identifying patterns is critical for what we do as chiropractors. One of the first parts of pattern recognition is the art of asking the right question(s). Is this a pattern? Is this a pattern that I need to be aware of? What is the relevance of this pattern? What lessons can I learn from this pattern? How I integrate this pattern and the knowledge into an organized scheme? These all stem from IRQ's (issue raising questions) and the train of thought instilled by THE PAUL.
THE PAUL was a master at lighting the fire of critical thinking and analysis by challenging us to ask the hard questions over and over again. One of the works we covered was Plato's The Allegory of the Cave. The story examines reality, perception of reality, the prison of the mind, the truth, finding the truth and how little by little how the truth becomes more and more clear and how the truth (light) contrasts and conflicts with the dark and the shadows. The IRQ (issue raising question), the IRQ instrument and Paul's unique ability help his students get out of the shadows and move towards the light. We are grateful for that!
Perhaps, my fondest memory is every Friday he would give us a "Neat Speech." The "Neat Speech" This was given towards the end of the period. The "Neat Speech" was a list of do's, dont's and what to watch out for during the weekend or during a break (Winter Break, Summer Break, etc.). You see his audience was high school students. We lived in and had a great community around us, but we were developing and at times flawed high school kids that could and did make mistakes. Paul never wanted us to be in harm's way.
His "Neat Speech" was his attempt to show that he cared about our health and safety. The speech covered everything from traffic safety, to personal safety, to emergency procedures just in case things went south. The part that still to this day hits me hard is the part where if you are in trouble or in a bad situation and need to get out call 708_ _ _ - _ _ _ _ and "I'll take you home, not to my home but to your home." THE PAUL was telling you every Friday that if things get bad, call him directly as he provided his actual phone number to high school students and that he would pick you up, no judgement, no shame and take you home to safety. TALK ABOUT ABOVE AND BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY!
Paul, once said anytime you have to the use the prefix THE in-front of someone's name or title, they're a big deal. The President, The Pope, the Prime Minister, etc. all come to mind here. He chuckled and would sometimes refer to himself as THE PAUL. Well Paul, you've earned THE PAUL title.
Paul, thank you from the bottom of my heart what you did for me personally and for all of us. You are treasured and missed already! Godspeed and until we meet again!
Your student,
Dino
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Lauren Schultz posted a condolence
Monday, October 9, 2023
Paul was one of the best teachers I ever had. How lucky for all of us who were his students. He taught me how to think, to question and have confidence in my ideas. He shared his love of photography and learning with everyone who walked through his classroom door. As well as all those who he encountered outside of the classroom. He walked the bleachers at Stagg while we played soccer, as "you can't have a strong mind without a strong body" was a motto he shared often. I kept in contact with Paul throughout the years. We messaged every MLK day and talked about the Letter from Birmingham Jail. We spoke of Jane Elliot and discrimination and diversity most years, as well. To say he will be missed is an understatement. I was lucky to know him.
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Richard Lindenmeyer planted a tree in memory of Paul Baltz
Monday, October 9, 2023
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Introduction to The Great Books greatly affected me. Thanks, PRB Join in honoring their life - plant a memorial tree
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Richard Lindenmeyer posted a condolence
Monday, October 9, 2023
One of the best teachers I had while attending Stagg H.S. He made you think and truly bring out the best in you. I am a better person because of his instruction.
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Dene posted a condolence
Monday, October 9, 2023
Paul visited the Oberweis store EVERY day. He ordered his standard large vanilla milkshake -extra thick every time. We made it a special way so it was thicker than normal. Every new employee was taught how to make his milkshake…..and he let us know in no uncertain terms when it had not been made properly. I’ll miss our conversations at the drive-through window.
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Anonymous planted a tree in memory of Paul Baltz
Monday, October 9, 2023
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For everything there is a season. This tree will have many seasons in Paul's memory. Join in honoring their life - plant a memorial tree
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A Memorial Tree was planted for Paul Baltz
Monday, October 9, 2023
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We are deeply sorry for your loss ~ the staff at Fred C. Dames Funeral Homes - Joliet Join in honoring their life - plant a memorial tree
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The family of Paul Robert Baltz uploaded a photo
Monday, October 9, 2023
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