Recognition

Seasoned teachers are under assault these days. After 30 years of doing this, I have come to terms with the fact that recognition is rare and will come only from a few students, some of their parents, close colleagues and possibly our own families (though my husband has sadly become quite tired of my student stories). I see myself as a tough old gal though Omar was nice enough to tell me today that I don't look THAT old yet.  At a recent reunion, I had a gang of former students thank me. That felt great. Another  former student, now a father,  brings his sweet little girl over to see me now and again. Last time he was there, he told my carpenter that I was the best teacher in the world, kind of awkward for my carpenter who rarely speechless mumbled something like, "yeah, great people." In this present climate of scapegoating, the less said about us the better, I suppose. But then why does a part of me still, after all these years, harbor a hope of some formal recognition? It feels almost pathetic. On the NEA site I saw this:  http://classroomsuperheroes.com/ and wished for just a second that someone might elect me. Perhaps I should ask my carpenter. 

Mohamed

Am I being unfair or un-American if I say that my immigrant students, for the most part, work way harder than my ‘made in America’ lot?  Sorry but this is my anecdotal opinion.  Take for example my student who recently arrived from Yemen.  If you share the topical concern that teachers have become lazy, bring in Mohamed. When I recently gave his class an opportunity to relax for a minute after killing the present tense verb  ‘to be’ he said, “No thank you, please move on to ‘was and were.’ A twenty-year-old, hard-of-hearing boy, who told me the first day of class, “I am here to learn English” and when making connections sometimes signs half to me, half to himself, (with pure delight, I must add), “I am learning!” Does it get much better than that for us teachers? I think not. I don’t want to go off into some inspirational dribble about the thrill of seeing those little lights go on but feel compelled to mention here, with the present state of educational affairs, that this is the rare occurrence on which we poor teachers still set our hearts and minds. So I must thank the Mohameds of this world for while they may be draining our resources (especially those who have made it here illegally) they sure could teach a few of their homegrown counterparts what it just might take to succeed.