It's Teacher Appreciation Week. Cartoonist Jim Benton illustrates their work well. I offer my thanks to Mr. Walzer, my sixth grade history teacher, for showing me a new world.
In the comments, tell us about a teacher that helped you.
Carol Robbins, my 10th grade English teacher, told me I should be a writer. I was a kid who got teased a lot about my funny accent (I'd recently moved to the South from the Midwest), I loved writing because it was a safe way to express myself. Eventually, I did become a journalist and later a broadcaster, but I probably wouldn't have seriously considered going that route had she not given me genuine encouragement. I still love to write, and have hopes that I can get into technical writing someday. So, Ms. Robbins, thank you. Honestly.
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My school was only interested in you if you wanted to go to university. I have pretty much blocked out my school days and can only remember 4 of my teacher's names: one because he was vaguely interesting and the other 3 because they were sarcastic sadists. The rest (long forgotten and not at all missed) were just disinterested time-servers who were given the "lesser" pupils. This was, at the time, one of the top grammar schools in the UK - not some inner city sink hole.
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