Reflection and thanks to educators

My mom called me last night to tell me my beloved crisis counselor from high school had died over the weekend. She had been the sponsor of the mentor program I did that sent me to elementary school to pair up with kids that needed extra attention and she was really gem. Funny but if she thought you needed to talk she had all the time for that too. It has me a bit sad this morning because I she is gone and my favorite teacher from elementary school lost her fight with breast cancer at 48 when I was fresh out of high school. My favorite middle school teacher went into higher education and my favorite high school english teacher went into publishing so she could support her adopted daughter better as a single mother. My rockstar kindergarten teacher is a missionary which is guess means she is educating someone somewhere. I can't think of a teacher that left a mark on me that is still educating in public schools to my knowledge and I am young enough someone should be.

Those of you struggling with horrible classes and parents that disrespect, I hope you have one student that stops to say thanks. I told several of those teachers but judging from you gals and my friends that teach most parents and kids do not.

My world is better for having had those teachers and even for having the ones I didn't enjoy, I wish more people looked at the world like that.

I raise my morning coffee to teachers... and especially To Mr. D, my 7th grade science teacher, that had no preconceived notion that girls shouldn't get their fingers dirty, that got me off on this crazy track that I'm still on. I still remember the nature trail we build across the street from our school in Michigan.

To you Teachers... YAY!!!

I didn't get Physics at all but I am so glad that I took it and I hated building a car powered by a mouse trap but I am so glad I had to. To this day I still don't know what the physics lesson was but the perserverance lesson sticks with me. That may or may not have been a lesson he intended us to learn.

In elementary school, my favorite teacher was Mrs. Coleman. She inspired me and all the kids loved her. She left teaching a few years after I left that school to become a prison guard so she could support her family. Teachers should be able to support their families by teaching just as well if not better than prison guards. Maybe if the great teachers were paid better, there would be less of a need for prison guards.

In eighth grade I was fortunate enough to get into a very good private school, and I stayed there through high school (until that point the longest I was in one school was two years, mostly I changed school every year). Most of the teachers I had are STILL teaching there (I'm in my 40s!)--they have the lowest turnover ever. Here's to Mr. Gould (history), Mr. Parry (physics), Miss Wallace (English), and Madame Clegg (French). The last two are not teaching there anymore, but they taught me alot. Oh, and even Mr. Willard, whom I really disliked at the time, deserves a toast because he had very high expectations and worked as hard as we did.

wow...

I have very little memory of my early childhood. My second grade teacher went way above and beyond trying to integrate me into her class after I was skipped way too young. My fourth grade teacher was a great support. I had a wonderful English teacher in 9th and 10th grades. I never kept track of any of them.

My high school physics teacher, who shepherded me through adolescence and deftly handled my sickly crush on him - never making me feel rejected yet never allowing any boundaries to be crossed - is now a counselor. My French teacher, brilliant and universally adored, died of AIDS. My English teacher, whose first manuscript I typed for submission, is now a wildly successful author of young adult fiction.

At the age of 74, my mom still adores teaching fourth grade. I wonder what the statistics really are - if teachers are more prone to career change than other service professionals. I know at least one person who went the other way, a lawyer who retired to pursue her dream of teaching middle school.

Heartfelt thanks to all of them - and to all teachers.

Aggie, I was never a student that bothered my teachers. However, never in a million years would it have occurred to me to THANK them! On the other hand, I was speaking to a friend of mine in Italy, who is a little older than me. She said "we felt lucky because we were able to attend school at all" you see, that's the difference.

I had few great teachers, and a few mediocre teachers that did great things.
I never did any homework at home until my Algebra teacher said, homework EVERY night, and if you miss 2 nights, you fail my class. That one simple ground rule changed me from a C student to an A student. Because if you sit down to do your Algebra homework, you might as well do all the rest.
Unlike Oakleaf, I can remember all my teachers, and most of their names. I can remember the ones who were unfair, those that favored girls over boys, those who didn't like me because my last name was different from my mother's.
I have managed to contact the three of my teachers who were important to me as an adult. That was fun. You never realize how your words as a teacher are going to affect your students.
When i was a senior, a teacher said to us; "Most children of divorce end up divorced themselves" (a statistic that i am certain is true) This upset me profoundly and I made it my business to prove her wrong. And I tracked her down and told her about it.

Teachers, you have an incredible opportunity to sow seeds in our youth. You never know what rocky fields will grow a tree.

Aggie,
I hope you don't mind, but I have to chime in on this. First of all, I'm sorry for the loss of your former counselor. That is a very sad thing. Second, thank you for bringing attention to all the unsung heroes who teach. Well, i guess with this thread they aren't unsung anymore.
I raise my morning coffee to Mrs. Fenimore (1st grade) who took a kid with way too much energy and curiosity and focused it. To Ms. Pennington (4th grade) who not only started me early on the path of being a good student, but also took extra time to work with a girl that was just a little too different from the rest of the class. And to Ms. Smith (11th grade) I feel that I owe her a debt that I'll never be able to repay. She opened up not only my mind, but in a lot of ways my soul. I was linear, rigid, and entirely "too much in my head". She helped me to become fluid, flexible, and got me to see and think beyond what was simply written on a page. I owe my love of history and literature and language to her. And while I will never forgive her for making me read "Billy Bud" (we debated that hotly until the end of my high school career), I will never, ever forget what she did for me. I'm not a teacher by profession, but I think the greatest way for me to repay her is to keep learning and doing my best to teach others with the same passion that she taught me.
To all teachers out there, thank you for you effort and your passion and tireless pursuit of education. You are appreciated and loved.
Gray

The most profound thing I remember about Ms. Lacey, my counselor, was when my uncle Bocky died. I had missed school to attend the services and being an relatively uncommon last name we shared Ms. Lacey connected why I was out. The next day she called me up after class and asked if I had been out because he was a relative and said yes, explained he was my Pawpaw's brother.

Turns out what I didn't know was Uncle Bocky was very handsome and quite the football player in his younger days. How did Ms. Lacey know? She was a cheerleader and remembered him from those days. She asked if I needed to talk and I said no, did she? We laughed and she said no, but she hadn't thought about cheering in high school for a long time so she was sorry about Bocky but thanks for the memory. It was a nice moment that only I got to share with her and that was cool.

I loved school myself, I looked forward to going back each year. But I was always kind of shy and didn't tell many teachers how great I thought they were. I think I should write a couple of the others letters if I can find their addresses before I read their obits.

This message brings rushing in lots of fond memories of teachers from elementary school through to my Ph.D. (Having been in school for about 20 years, I've had more than my share of teachers.) I loved Thérèse (we called our teachers by their first name) in 5th grade who also had breast cancer when she was my brother's teacher but was much better by the time I had her as a teacher two years later. Last I heard she's doing great. That was, what, 1989, 1990? I remember my mother cutting off a newspaper piece about something to do with reconstructive breast surgery, putting it in an envelope and telling me to bring it to Thérèse...

Is there such a thing as a World Teachers' Day? According to Wikipedia it's on Jan. 13th, but I've never seen it celebrated. Something should be done about that.

There's a Teacher Appreciation Day in May.

Veronica

You'd be surprised how many of your old teachers are still alive and kicking. Many of mine were not much older than me 6-10 years older, and to me they were old women, but really they were in their 20's!
So look them up, and you can expect a really friendly response, at least the three I thanked, two remembered me, one didn't but they were all happy to know that they'd had a positive effect on SOMEONE.

I've only ever wanted to have contact with one teacher from my past. Mr. Crowell, from 4th and 5th grade, when I was in the Open Classroom with 6th graders, too. I moved away in the middle of 5th grade (from the suburbs of Chicago to a tiny town in Arkansas). I wrote him letters from Arkansas and he wrote me back and that was fun. The year I left he was Illinois Teacher of the Year, which was very cool (although, I think the Open Classroom concept was a mistake after I'd spent a year in it and I still think that--he was a pioneer in those days).

I've looked him up online but haven't found him. He was probably less than 30 at the time, but he was a very large man and I can't imagine his health was good.

Karen

I had Ms. Canavan for my gr. 3 reading teacher. I knew she was young; she lived at home and when we walked home for lunch, she walked home, too! Her parents ran a popular restaurant.
Fast forward to 1998. I was in a week long seminar on authors and Language Arts. I was sitting next to a woman named Cedra in a lecture. I knew it was Ms. Canavan, since I had never met anyone else with that name. So I asked her if she taught at Spaulding School and yes, she was still teaching 3d grade there!
Funny, she must have had her child late in life, because he was only about 6-7 years older than my son. I was eight when I had her, in 1961. She must have been only 21 or 22? She didn't look that old in 1998!
I had so many great teachers, I couldn't list them all here. That's why I became one.

The best teacher I know I never had but she deserves my praise- my aunt has taught special ed all my life. She admits to being burnt out with the system but when she talks about her kids she lights up, I coached special olympics and I don't know how she does it! Aunt Renee will definitely be a rockstar to me forever. I had some pretty amazing teachers but there were a few that really stood out. I thought I wanted to teach but now I know I don't have the guts for it.

Feb 2-6 was national counselor appreciation week, so the tribute was fitting.