For the Love of the Future
After a few weeks in the
classroom, Anne knows which kids are struggling. Sometimes its money. She has a
ready supply of pens, paper, and binders to give away.
Kids come to school
ill-equipped for cold weather. She hits the secondhand stores for an assortment
of warm sweaters, coats, and boots.
And before the high school’s spring dance,
she’s scanning consignment racks for cute prom dresses and guy’s dress shirts.
Her students won’t be left out because they didn’t have anything to wear.
Some students need more time
than a class period. So, Anne keeps her door open so students have a place to
go after school.
Sometimes she’ll even ask a student to stay after school. It’s
more than just homework catch-up, it’s because she cares about their future. She
knows that school is their ticket to a hopeful future.
With over two decades in the
classroom, there aren’t many needs she hasn’t seen among her students. Anne
jokes that she has a husband, child, and two hundred adopted kids. Not all her
students will head to college, but all need to pass her class to graduate—and
even more than English; they need life-skills.
So, part of her “curriculum” is
teaching kids to balance a checking account and to budget their living expenses.
Students create a resume, and practice interviewing for a job. She calls this
her “Eyes Wide Open” unit. She figures that if her own child needs to know
this, so do the rest of her kids.
Anne will never be rich in
the conventional way, but she keeps her real treasure in a closet. It’s a box
full of letters, cards, even scribbled notes of thanks.
No, she doesn’t do all
she does for the thanks. She’ll be the first to say she teaches because she
loves helping students have a better future—and when they do, that is all the
thanks she really need.
Schools are blessed with teachers who invest their
time and more money than they admit, making their classrooms a place where
students can thrive.
This is Teacher Appreciation Week and it’s a great time to
send a thank you to the ones who made a difference in your life.
Unless you
tell them, they may never know.