Thanks buffalojim for your kind post sharing the wonderful influence your teachers had on your life. I also grew up poor and was lucky enough to have excellent teachers who guided me along when my parents could or would not. My father grew up poor in Ireland. His mother died when he was only 6 years old. He was beaten and severely disciplined by the religious brothers who taught him and therefore, did not have a positive educational experience. This is why I can understand buggyone's response to this post. As a teacher myself, I can sense when a parent had a negative educational experience. They are usually very defensive during conferences and project their bad experiences onto their children. This is something that makes me very sad. My heart breaks when this happens because students are then set up to think every teacher is the enemy, when in most cases this is far from true. I am committed to honoring my past teachers by guiding my young students with as much care, patience and kindness as I was given.
|