Some of My Greatest Heroes and Heroines Have Been Teachers...

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.  ~Henry Brooks Adams

I've been thinking a lot about some of my favorite teachers lately, how they changed my life, where I would be now without them.  I'm sure I wouldn't be a writer. I owe my career in large part to a mother who was an avid reader, leading by example, and to those caring and inspiring teachers.

Each one of them taught me something and some taught me a great deal. A few literally turned my world in a different and exciting direction, setting my feet on a new path. There was the one who first taught me how to unlock the wonders that lay inside books. There was the teacher who made me realize that math could open doors for me that had been closed before (and yes, even writers need math). There was the eighth grade teacher who pulled me out of my shy shell and helped me learn to (joyfully) face an audience as a public speaker and as a very bad junior high actress, the high school teacher who first said, "You seem to have a talent for writing," and the college professor who pulled me aside and told me that he would like to see more of my stories.

These were not minor events in my life, even though I didn't always recognize them as major at the time. These were people who, despite low pay and not very good benefits, evenings spent grading papers and planning lessons when they would probably rather have been with their families, came to school every day...and inspired students like myself to believe in possibilities, to believe in themselves. What a wonderful gift! I haven't named them here for fear of leaving someone out and because this is a public forum and I haven't asked their permission to name them, but to those of you who teach...thank you. You are valued. You are valuable.

If you'd like to read about some famous teachers, here are a few:
John Dewey
Booker T. Washington
Julia Richman
Jaime Escalante

Best Wishes and Happy Reading!