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Your most inspirational teacher
When I was little I thought firefighters were the only heroes...
We all grow up thinking our parents are heroes. For me, my father was a firefighter saving lives each day downtown and my mother was a teacher saving children in the classroom. Wait, saving children in the classroom? Ha! C’mon… get real. When I was a kid, I would look at the clock and think ‘When am I getting out of here??’
It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized how much of a difference my mother had made in the lives of so many. No, she wasn’t busting down the doors of fiery buildings and carrying families, the dog, and even the pet turtle out on her back… but she was making lifelong impressions on children beyond the basic algebra lesson.
I realize this isn’t ‘nominate your mom’ and I have had plenty of great teacher’s pre-k through college but the stories that have had the most impact are about my mother. I cannot take a trip to Dunkin Donuts or CVS without running into one of my mother’s former students or a parent that might recognize my picture from her classroom or know my name on a prescription. Too many times I have heard “Your mother… she is a saint for dealing with my son’s 8th grade class!” or “My daughter has never understood math until your mother spent time with her…unbelievable!” Ok, so my mom has patience and she’s good at math? Sounds like a typical teacher. Her love for teaching and her students goes much further than this.
She see’s the boy slumped in the back row who can’t keep his eyes open during class. She knows he doesn’t have a bed to sleep in but rather a cousin’s couch. When he can’t find his homework she knows he had no backpack to carry it in and no quiet place to do it last night. She speaks to him after class and offers for him to stay after school so they can review the assignment together. She cares that he has a place to focus and worries not only about his grades but his well-being. He may be in eighth grade now and can take care of himself for the most part… but a few more years bouncing from house to house, no real place to sleep, no balance in his life – what does his future look like? To make change, she knows, it starts with just one person caring. After all, this isn’t the first child in all her years of teaching she has seen sleepy in the back row, wondering where he will go after schools out today.
It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized how much of a difference my mother had made in the lives of so many. No, she wasn’t busting down the doors of fiery buildings and carrying families, the dog, and even the pet turtle out on her back… but she was making lifelong impressions on children beyond the basic algebra lesson.
I realize this isn’t ‘nominate your mom’ and I have had plenty of great teacher’s pre-k through college but the stories that have had the most impact are about my mother. I cannot take a trip to Dunkin Donuts or CVS without running into one of my mother’s former students or a parent that might recognize my picture from her classroom or know my name on a prescription. Too many times I have heard “Your mother… she is a saint for dealing with my son’s 8th grade class!” or “My daughter has never understood math until your mother spent time with her…unbelievable!” Ok, so my mom has patience and she’s good at math? Sounds like a typical teacher. Her love for teaching and her students goes much further than this.
She see’s the boy slumped in the back row who can’t keep his eyes open during class. She knows he doesn’t have a bed to sleep in but rather a cousin’s couch. When he can’t find his homework she knows he had no backpack to carry it in and no quiet place to do it last night. She speaks to him after class and offers for him to stay after school so they can review the assignment together. She cares that he has a place to focus and worries not only about his grades but his well-being. He may be in eighth grade now and can take care of himself for the most part… but a few more years bouncing from house to house, no real place to sleep, no balance in his life – what does his future look like? To make change, she knows, it starts with just one person caring. After all, this isn’t the first child in all her years of teaching she has seen sleepy in the back row, wondering where he will go after schools out today.
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