On our final day of teacher appreciation week, I want to share with you not my own thoughts, but those of a student, writing as an adult, about the impact of her teacher on her life:

“It was my teacher’s genius, her quick sympathy, her loving tact which made the first years of my education so beautiful. It was because she seized the right moment to impart knowledge that made it so pleasant and acceptable to me.

* * *

Any teacher can take a child to the classroom, but not every teacher can make him learn. He will not work joyously unless he feels that liberty is his, whether he is busy or at rest; he must feel the flush of victory and the heart-sinking of disappointment before he takes with a will the tasks distasteful to him and resolves to dance his way bravely through a dull routine of textbooks. My teacher is so near to me that I scarcely think of myself apart from her. How much of my delight in all beautiful things is innate, and how much is due to her influence, I can never tell. I feel that her being is inseparable from my own, and that the footsteps of my life are in hers. All the best of me belongs to her—there is not a talent, or an aspiration or a joy in me that has not been awakened by her loving touch.”

The teacher she refers to is Anne Sullivan; and the student writing those words was Hellen Keller—deaf, blind, and mute.  Learning for Helen was more difficult than you or I could imagine.  The boring days were even duller in her dark and silent world; the difficult days were even harder in light of her limited capacities.  As a child, she often got angry, frustrated, and exhausted by Miss Sullivan.  But looking back as an adult, Helen was overwhelmed with appreciation for her great teacher.  

It is a reminder that teacher appreciation isn’t really just a matter of a week, but of a lifetime.  And I wish you all the same perspective, one day, as Helen Keller.

Have a wonderful day.