Brilliant Teachers

I received this as an e-mail, it is not new, you may have read it. I have not been able to verify it’s truth. It is sort of a feel good and sad Christmas story. I mentioned a couple blogs ago how it was nice to read a professional’s work like Rick over at Life 101. He could write a story like this. I like the story; I even hope it is true. If not, it would be awesome for a teacher to do this every year.
       
A great Niece Teacher of the Year at The Grove in Gastonia, NC

Enjoy this story, it’s ok to cry, I did:


The math teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name.


Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. Then turn in the papers.


That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual.
On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments.
No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. The exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with themselves and one another.
Several years later, one of the students was killed in Viet Nam and his teacher attended the funeral of that special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin
before. He looked so handsome, so mature..

As she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her. 'Were you Mark's math teacher?' he asked. She nodded: 'yes.' Then he said:

'Mark talked about you a lot.'
After the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon. Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his teacher.
'We want to show you something,' his father said, taking a wallet out of his pocket 'They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might recognize it.'
Opening the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew without looking that the papers were the ones on which she had listed all the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.
'Thank you so much for doing that,' Mark's mother said. 'As you can see, Mark treasured it.'
All of Mark's former classmates started to gather around. Charlie smiled rather sheepishly and said, 'I still have my list. It's in the top drawer of my desk at home.'
Chuck's wife said, 'Chuck asked me to put his in our wedding album.'


'I have mine too,' Marilyn said. 'It's in my diary'
Then Vicki, another classmate, reached into her pocketbook, took out her wallet and showed her worn and frazzled list to the group. 'I carry this with me at all times,' Vicki said and without batting an eyelash, she continued: 'I think we all saved our lists'
That's when the teacher finally sat down and cried. She cried for Mark and for all his friends who would never see him again.
Nite Shipslog

PS: There are some teachers I will never forget and some I cannot remember. I one bad class, the teacher wasn’t bad, just could not control HS students, she was out of her realm.
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Another 3-D painting. You would declare those oranges are about to pour out!