Photo by radina grancharova
I want to give a shout out to all the good teachers that make up our public school system. So often we only hear about or talk about the “bad” seeds. This is especially true in the city where I live, Milwaukee. The school district has a bad reputation.
But this past week I have been very impressed with my 17-year-old son’s English teacher who has decided that teaching is about more than just earning a paycheck, it is about inspiring her students.
While my son is incredibly smart and never studies for tests, yet gets A’s and B’s, he has a hard time with turning in homework. This is especially true when he has to do a project. He will readily admit that he is lazy when it comes to that. So his grades are sometimes brought down by
the fact that he chooses to not do his homework.
He recently announced to me that he was going to fail his Advanced Placement English class because of a project he never did. He seemed perfectly content with the idea of going to summer school. But I knew what he was thinking, summer school English would be a piece of cake compared to the project he had yet to complete in AP English.
But his teacher who knows the potential that my son has, refuses to let him take the easy way out. She sent me an email last week going into detail about what was going on and that she would stay afterschool with him until he got his grade back up. She said he is too smart to go to summer school. He is too smart to fail.
When I told my son he wasn’t too happy. But the next day she talked to him and suddenly I saw a light in his eyes. She apparently motivated him by talking about all of the potential he has. He needed to hear this from someone other than mom. And his teacher was willing to do whatever is necessary to help him realize that.
This same teacher also took it upon herself to go into the system and change his class for senior year. He wanted to take easy courses his final year, so he signed up for a regular English class but she went in and changed it to the next AP English class. Now some might think this was going over the line, but I personally am grateful for a teacher who isn’t willing to let my son settle for less than he is capable of.
As the school year is drawing to a close, I feel very appreciative of those teachers who truly do give of their heart and soul in teaching. As parents we need to make sure that we recognize this and thank our children’s teachers.
How about you give a shout out to a great teacher today?
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