In Praise of Good Teachers

Yesterday, I volunteered to help in my daughter's preschool class because the regular assistant teacher is on medical leave. Now, even though my degree is in History, I minored in Early Childhood Education and taught pre-K (four and five year olds) before I sold my first book. So I'm familiar with the workday.

Apparently, before I started writing fulltime and had kids of my own, I had way more energy and patience. Don't get me wrong, I had fun participating in my daughter's school day, but even working the half-day she attends a few mornings a week left me WIPED OUT. It gave me a renewed respect for the men and women who teach, not only in part-time preschool programs but all week long and all day. I remember a particularly wonderful fourth grade teacher named Mrs. Hudson who read to us aloud a chapter from a book every day after lunch (it's how I first experienced the unforgettable Chronicles of Narnia) and a wonderful sixth grade social studies teacher. I've never been any good with geography, but the closest I ever came to accurately reading a map or filling in European countries where they belonged was in her class because she made it so much fun to learn. Then there was the math teacher who, though she couldn't make math fun for me (impossible) was compassionate and patient, making me feel valued and smart despite by less than stellar grades in her class. And of course, there was the high school Literature teacher who made Beowulf and Shakespeare interesting and who not only gave me my first copy of Gone with the Wind but came to school in a full hoop skirt and petticoats that Scarlett herself would have applauded.

But teachers don't come only in salaried positions in classrooms. There have been people in my life who taught me how to be kind, that it was okay to laugh at myself, how to fly a kite, how to make zuchinni bread (yum!), how to ride a horse, and how to follow a dream with persistence. Thank you to all of you who are out there teaching someone something positive, whether it's showing a child how to tie her shoe or reading someone a book. You're making the world a better place.