Читать книгу Hope’s Daughters - R. Wayne Willis - Страница 74

Two professions vie for top spot on my most-respected list. One is teaching.

Yes, I know that some teachers are flat-out incompetent. I had a few doofuses. All of our children, unfortunately, also had a few.

For decades now I have lived with a woman who is both a career teacher and my wife. I have seen her donate everything but her spleen to motivate students. I have witnessed nights up until 4:00 a.m. grading papers, weekends spent preparing for the next week, and out-of-pocket small fortunes spent on supplies, gifts, decorations, and rewards.

Good teachers get satisfaction from knowing they gave it their best. Their “hallelujah” payoff, however, is when a former student surfaces years later to say something like: “You were simply the best—thanks forever.”

In his autobiography, world-class journalist David Brinkley tells of the profound disappointment he was to his mother from the day he was born. When he first showed her some of his fledgling attempts to write, she wadded them up and threw them in the trash and told him not to waste his time on “such foolishness.” But one day in English class, Mrs. Barrows Smith pronounced: “David, I think you ought to be a journalist.” Brinkley writes that at that moment “a world turned for me.”59

Educator Horace Mann wrote: “If you attempt to teach without inspiring, you’re hammering a cold iron.”

Is there a teacher living who significantly inspired and encouraged you or nudged you at a critical moment in your life in the right direction? It might mean the world to put that into words and pass it along to your Mrs. Smith. Someday it will be too late.