Teachers
There have been many. Yesterday, I challenged myself to remember the names of as many of my elementary teachers as I could. I remembered most of them, in order, from the first to the eighth grade. A majority are remembered with affection and gratitude. They gave an emotionally lost kid the gift of their attention, genuine regard, a palpable sense that they were on my side. I remember opportunities that I was given over the years that were intended just for me. I absorbed lessons offered, and these experiences became the foundation for a productive adult life.
My daughter-in-law is an elementary school teacher. By all accounts, she is a effective, compassionate teacher of children. Children are vulnerable, unformed, eager to absorb skills, tools for living with enthusiasm in the vast world which they find themselves. Their journey will be long, arduous, fraught with danger, from childhood to the sunset of adulthood. A good teacher is a life-long guide.
There is, thank God, no teacher-meter, and never is going to be one. A teacher’s major contribution may pop out anonymously in the life of some ex-student’s grandchild. A teacher, finally, has nothing to go on but faith, a student nothing to offer in return but testimony.
–Wendell Berry, excerpt from essay, Wallace Stegner and the Great Community.
One thought on “Teachers”
So true. Sometimes we never see the effects of what we’ve taught but we rely on pure faith.