As I get older, and hang out in my sons classroom, I have come to realize that I had some amazing teachers when I was in school. It saddens me to realize that I never once thought that these wonderful men and women would have a lasting effect on my life. Many of them are gone now, but I did get a chance to personally thank one of them recently.
Mr. K was my High School Business Math Teacher (and yes, I totally opted out of Algebra 2 by 10th grade, and it was a huge mistake my bad!). Mr. K taught me how to balance a checkbook, and is that not one of the absolute essential skills of everyday life? I saw him about a week ago, and he is looking older (as we all are, after-all 10th grade was 28 years ago eek!). I asked him how he was, when he retired and if he missed teaching. Amazingly, he missed it, AND remembered me! Nobody remembers me, and I had one of those moments of stunned disbelief. We chatted for about 20 minutes, with him asking me questions about my life, my family and if I ever decided to study History as I had dreamed of (which, regrettably I didn't)....How on earth does someone remember a student from nearly 20 years ago, out of literally thousands? I guess I am not as forgettable as I thought.
So today I would like to Thank not only Mr. K, but a few other teachers that took the time to make an impression on me:
Mrs. M, my 9th and 12th Grade English Teacher, who not only let me chew gum in class, but made me a READER! I came to enjoy Shakespeare, diagramming sentences, and realized writing could be fun!
Mr. B, my 9th Grade History Teacher, who took my love of numbers and made History so much fun I had a dream of becoming a History Teacher.....wish I had followed through on that, but life doesn't always give us what we think we want I guess ;)
Ms. H, my 9th and 10th Grade Science Teacher, who made the Periodic Table less intimidating and protested along with her students when we decided we would NOT dissect a frog, a baby pig OR a sheep brain. (Yes, sheep brain, eww! a Scientist I was NOT destined to be!)
Thank You all for giving of your time and sometimes money to educate me, not only "according to the books" but giving me the freedom to leave those books occasionally and explore the world. All of you took the time to TALK to your students. And that? Is the biggest lesson of all, because we were PEOPLE and you saw that.
Teachers are a rare and gifted breed, often making the lowest wages, with the biggest challenges. If anyone reading this is a teacher, I would like to say with utmost sincerity:
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
No comments:
Post a Comment