I received this in my Inbox this morning and loved it. I hope you do, too!
-Mr. C.
By J. Bradley:
Where are the heroes of today?” a radio talk show host thundered.
He blames society’s shortcomings on education. Too many people are
looking for heroes in all the wrong places. Movie stars and rock
musicians, athletes, and models aren’t heroes; they’re celebrities.
Heroes abound in public schools, a fact that doesn’t make the news.
There is no precedent for the level of violence, drugs, broken homes,
child abuse, and crime in today’s America. Education didn’t create
these problems but deals with them every day.
You want heroes?
Consider Dave Sanders, the schoolteacher shot to death while trying to
shield his students from two youths on a shooting rampage at Columbine
High School in Littleton, Colorado. Sanders gave his life, along with
12 students, and other less heralded heroes survived the Colorado blood bath.
You want heroes?
Jane Smith, a Fayetteville, NC teacher, was moved by the plight of one
of her students, a boy dying for want of a kidney transplant. So this
woman told the family of a 14 year old boy that she would give him one
of her kidneys. And she did. When they subsequently appeared
together hugging on the Today Show, even Katie Couric was near tears.
You want heroes?
Doris Dillon dreamed all her life of being a teacher. She not only
made it, she was one of those wondrous teachers who could bring the
best out of every single child. One of her fellow teachers in San Jose,
Calif., said, “She could teach a rock to read.”
Suddenly she was stricken with Lou Gehrig’s Disease which is always
fatal, usually within five years. She asked to stay on the job … and
did. When her voice was affected she communicated by computer.
Did she go home? Absolutely not! She is running two elementary
school libraries! When the disease was diagnosed, she wrote the staff
and all the families that she had one last lesson to teach …. that dying
is part of living. Her colleagues named her Teacher of the Year.
You want heroes?
Bob House, a teacher in Gay, Georgia, tried out for Who Wants to be a
Millionaire. After he won the million dollars, a network film crew
wanted to follow up to see how it had impacted his life. New cars?
Big new house?
Instead, they found both Bob House and his wife still teaching. They
explained that it was what they had always wanted to do with their
lives and that would not change. The community was both stunned and
gratified.
You want heroes?
Last year the average school teacher spent $468 of their own money for
student necessities … workbooks, pencils .. supplies kids had to
have but could not afford. That’s a lot of money from the pockets of the
most poorly paid teachers in the industrial world.
Schools don’t teach values? The critics are dead wrong.
Public education provides more Sunday School teachers than any other
profession. The average teacher works more hours in nine months than
the average 40-hour employee does in a year.
You want heroes?
For millions of kids, the hug they get from a teacher is the only hug
they will get that day because the nation is living through the worst
parenting in history.
An Argyle, Texas kindergarten teacher hugs her little 5 and 6
year-olds so much that both the boys and the girls run up and hug
her when they see her in the hall, at the football games, or in the malls years later.
A Michigan principal moved me to tears with the story of her attempt
to rescue a badly abused little boy who doted on a stuffed animal on
her desk .. one that said “I love you!” He said he’d never been told that
at home. This is a constant in today’s society .. two million
unwanted, unloved, abused children in the public schools, the only
institution that takes them all in.
You want heroes?
Visit any special education class and watch the miracle of personal
interaction, a job so difficult that fellow teachers are awed by the
dedication they witness. There is a sentence from an unnamed source
which says: “We have been so eager to give our children what we didn’t
have that we have neglected to give them what we did have.”
What is it that our kids really need? What do they really want?
Math, science, history and social studies are important, but children
need love, confidence, encouragement, someone to talk to, someone
to listen, standards to live by. Teachers provide upright examples,
the faith and assurance of responsible people.
You want heroes?
Then go down to your local school and see our real live heroes the
ones changing lives for the better each and every day!
Now, pass this on to someone you know who’s a teacher, or to someone
who should thank a teacher today. I’d like to see this sent to all
those who cut down the importance of teachers. They have no idea who a
public school teacher is or what they do.
J. Bradley-Asst. Principal
Fairland High School
Proctorville, OH
And who the heck is this average American who has the nerve to feel energetic 19 days a month?!? I’m lucky if I have 19 energetic days every six months! (Or at least the last six months–since my son was born!)