The 2006-2007 school year is officially behind us. This is a good time to acknowledge a group of people that are critical to our country’s success. They are the people that will have perhaps the greatest impact on our nation’s future. The group about whom this is written is our teachers.
Think about it for a moment. Many, if not most, parents struggle at times to have patience with the one or two children with whom they are charged. The average elementary teacher has 25 of these little urchins to manage. One teacher compared this to having 25 extension cords plugged into you all day with little appliances sucking out the energy. By the end of the day not much is left!
Most parents need to keep their young organized in structured activities one or two hours a day during the school year. A teacher keeps groups of young people organized for almost seven hours a day.
Many parents have the luxury of using electronic babysitters such as T.V., DVDs, and electronic games to pacify their offspring for significant periods of time. These diversions are also carefully selected to fit children’s interests. Teachers need to keep students actively engaged in areas that are not naturally high on a student’s preference list. For example, how many students have a natural interest in the concepts of grammar?
This is not meant to say that being a parent is easy. Being a parent is an extremely tough assignment. This truth further supports just how difficult a job teaching is.
Despite all these challenges, good teachers come to work each day, put a smile on their faces, and dive in to the sea of children with enthusiasm and passion. Such teachers provide not only positive learning experiences for children. They also develop an interest and a love for learning that stick with young people for their lives. A great teacher can make even the most mundane subject come alive.
During the last weeks of the school year this writer received notes and comments from parents, grandparents, and community members about teachers who have made a difference for children this year. These messages included such comments as, “developed a love for learning in a subject that my child used to hate”; “was like a magician with my granddaughter – getting her to love everything about school”; “took extra time before or after school to make sure my son did not fail his class”; and so on.
Each of the individuals who made the comments was amazed at what a talented and dedicated teacher could accomplish in the lives of their youth. When I shared these comments with the identified teachers, they were gratified. Sad to say they were also very surprised as such comments are too rarely made.
Great teachers are magicians. They can accomplish things that to the rest of us seem almost magical. Helping a previously unsuccessful young person find confidence and accomplishment is nothing short of miraculous. Great teachers have literally turned lives around for countless people and brought about life-long change to students that many others had labeled hopeless or useless.
These teaching magicians were not willing to give up so easily. They saw the spark of talent and the basic good in each one. Such teachers do not give up until they fan that spark into a fire and bring the good to the surface.
If you know some of these magicians, let them know how much you appreciate their work.
One more way to honor and value the teaching profession is to encourage our best and most talented young people to enter it. More than at any time in history we need the most talented and brightest people developing our youth. The best people produce the best results. Few results are more important than high academic success. Great teachers make this happen.
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