posted
Thanks Betty for being present with us today.
You are a present (gift), and I appreciate it.
Susan
Posts: 233 | From United States | Registered: Oct 2006
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lymednva
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9098
posted
Thanks, Betty! That's why I became a teacher and in my heart will always be one.
It's why I love to watch my son teach his students in the South Bronx, the ones he's been with for two years now. by his choice. He's a fourth generation teacher.
It's why I enjoy running into my former students in the grocery store and hearing what they are doing now as young adults. In the past week I've seen two.
One told me how he is an alcoholic (at age 21). His mom died when he was in second grade, and I never really taught him, but was just one of his many "moms" at the school.
We've been watching over him for years, and through all the trouble he always came back to see us. We almost lost him in a car accident a couple of years ago.
Now he proudly told me how he had gotten his act together, is sober, lost 100 pounds, and is going back to school. The state is going to pay for it and he is going to become an auto mechanic. He's talked about doing that since he was in high school. This time I believe him. There's something different in his voice.
Today I ran into one of my former students. He was always a dreamer, head in the clouds, never getting his work done, falling asleep in class. But he began staying after school two days a week to work on his assignments when I had him in sixth grade.
He dropped out of high school, but quickly got his GED. He has been wandering from one thing to another. Today he told me he's quit the job at the hamburger joint and is working with a building contractor who is training him to take over his business.
He is going back to try again at the community college and is taking a course in small business management. This time I think he'll make it. When I told him I thought it sounded like a good match for him, that he wouldn't be good at a desk job all day, he laughed and said, "No, I'd fall asleep!"
There are hundreds of other stories I could tell. Some better, some not, but they are all important to the child who it is about.
Tonight I will probably see some of my former students at church. The ones who are away at college. How satisfying to see them grow from second and sixth graders into young adults.
I know I didn't have a huge impact on most of them, but there were some that I firmly believe I made a difference to, and that's what makes it all worthwhile.
-------------------- Lymednva Posts: 2407 | From over the river and through the woods | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
Great story! I have been teaching for almost 20 years and continue to do it fighting off this lyme. There is nothing that can keep me from my students.
Amy
-------------------- Amy Holloway Posts: 255 | From Michigan | Registered: Oct 2005
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