National Teacher Day!

I have decided that I will celebrate a different holiday every day this month. Because of my procrastinatory skills, I already missed May Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day.

But I certainly didn't want to miss National Teacher Day!



I may not be in the majority here, but I loved school. (May explain why I went through the 20th grade - 23rd if you count residency) Certainly a large chunk of that was my friends, but the experience of learning new things, and the feeling of accomplishment I'd get from doing my work well... that was great! If I hadn't had the right teachers at the right times, though, I'm sure it would have been different. There are certain teachers that are indelibly part of me - I think of them, and decide to try just a little harder, or to listen more, or to look at something from another perspective.

Once upon a time, I thought I could be a teacher. Then I took a summer job teaching an arts and crafts class. Arts and crafts - easy-peasy, right? Not so much. I got just a hint of what I would have been like as a teacher, and it turns out, I'm not very good!

I have some friends that have become excellent teachers, though - the kind of teacher I would have loved as a student.

So, yay teachers! Here's a day to celebrate you. Not enough for all that you do for your students, the future, and humanity as a whole, but thank you all very much.

If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job. ~Donald D. Quinn