Teachers

(not in response to home pooling and those man eating sharks :-) )

Just last week I received two surprise packages in the mail. For those who know me, getting mail is one of the best parts of my day. By "getting mail" I don't mean the junk mail, the grocery store fliers, bills or even magazines (although my scrapbook magazine is a close runner-up), I mean REAL mail. Real letters from real people who know the real me. Recently, I told my dad that I missed getting his letters - he used to send me a letter every couple of weeks while I was at college - and lo and behold, the mail flow has started again, but that's a story for a different day.

You can imagine, then, how two completely unexpected packages made my week. The first was actually sent to my parents' house, addressed to me. I opened the manila envelope and found inside a card and a book art project. The envelope was from my 6th grade teacher, Mrs. A, who I absolutely adored. She had decided to retire at the end of this school year and, as she wrote in the card, she was cleaning out her classroom for the next teacher when "this" fell out of her copy of Matilda by Roald Dahl. "This" was a project I had done in class in response to her read-aloud of Matilda. Even as 6th graders, Mrs. A read aloud to us every day. We completed several books throughout the year that she read to us. We were allowed to color or put our heads down or look out the window while she was reading and I have to say, I bet nobody's attention wandered during those readings, mine certainly didn't. My project was a pop up art illustrating a scene from Matilda - the one where Matilda goes to Miss Honey's house for the first time for tea and realizes how poor she is. It is also the time when Matilda first hears about Miss Honey's tragic past and her dark secret of being related to the evil Miss Trunchbull. I had completely forgotten about the project. Matilda is one of my favorite stories and my copy is well worn.

Mrs. A wrote that I had given her my pop up art to use as an example for future classes. The next year it had ripped and I had made her another one. This copy, the one she had sent me, had been used as an example of pop up art as well as "extra effort" and "pride in product" for the past 16 years. It was very cool to hear that she had used my project for so long and that she cared enough to send it back to me. Reading her letter made me remember things I had long forgotten. Mrs. A. was one of my favorite teachers of all time: she called us "baby monkeys," had nicknames for all of us - she was the first teacher to call me by my nickname, not my full name. She read to us, encouraged us and loved us. We did creative things in her class, like memorizing a Greek myth and presenting it, in toga, to the class. We mummified a chicken "King Tut" and buried it for the next year's class, we did a year long project researching a country and presented it in a school wide exhibition and even made a "World Peace Quilt" and invited diplomats from other countries to come to our presentation. Although I was already an avid reader and interested in history, Mrs. A. got me interested in Greek mythology, Shakespeare and World War II. I visited her for a long time after I left 6th grade and sent her post cards while I was on vacation.

My second surprise package of the week was a package from my 1st grade teacher, Mrs. M. The package was for J and included two books for his library. My 1st grade memories of Mrs. M are of a kind, soft spoken teacher who did fun things like dress up as this other funny lady and teach us funny things, sing Mr. Sun, and have big pillows during read aloud so that we could relax while she read to us. She also, after learning that I was very upset that I hadn't lost a tooth yet and made it on the tooth chart, gave me a book about a bunny who didn't lose her first tooth until long after all her friends. I also stayed in touch with Mrs. M., the elementary school was so small that I saw her often during the next five years and very frequently in 6th grade when we became big buddies for 1st graders. We stayed in touch throughout junior high and high school and in 12th grade I did a half year internship in her classroom. I invited her to our wedding and have sent her Christmas cards each year as well. Funnily enough, she had actually taught with G's mother before he was born.

It is truly amazing the impact that teachers can have on children's lives. Although the cynics would say that the bad teachers' impacts make far more of an impact than the good or mediocre teachers, I believe that a good teacher can make all the difference in the world. Although every teacher a student encounters will not be like these two women, students can have meaningful and lasting relationships with their teachers. There are many other teachers and professors who made a lasting difference in my life (for the good) even though I do not have the same relationship with them as I do Mrs. A and Mrs. M, but I will always be grateful for their influence as well.

In closing, here is a quote that Mrs. A had posted in her classroom: "If you aim for the moon and miss, remember, you are still among the stars."