“In teaching you cannot see the fruit of a day's work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for twenty years.”
Jacques Barzun
I had the privilege this morning of chatting with one of my favorite high school teachers. He spent more than 20 years developing and teaching a course called Black Studies. My parents both took Black Studies with Mr. Abbott in the 70's and I took it in the 90's. That course had a more profound effect on my life than any other I took in high school.
Mr. Abbott retired sometime ago but teaches US History part time at one of the local branches of the state university. The quote I posted above is so true. . . what a blessing it was for me to be able to show Mr. Abbot the fruit of his work by telling him that not only do I remember his class and all that I learned nearly 15 years later, but my parents remember as well more than 30 years later.
I find it truly amazing that a teacher can have such a positive impact on a student. I have a few that I can remember, and with good reason too. We were never offered a class about Black studies. I think that would have been a good class to make mandatory! I believe that, if you can remember the class and the teacher, then something has really gone right! :) Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDelete~Misty
Over the years, I've been blessed with more than one teacher that has made such an impact on my life. One of my other history teachers from high school was also the DJ at my wedding reception...(My parents had him as a teacher too & it looks like my son will as well)...
ReplyDeleteI had the same music/theater arts teacher all the way through school...we even changed schools together...I transferred my sophomore year (in large part because she had given her notice at the end of my Freshman year) and found out a week later that she'd accepted a job at the school I was transferring to...we're still friends today. One of the advantages to small towns & small schools, I suppose...smaller class sizes and the opportunity to develop closer relationships. Then of course there's the advantage of knowing most everyone when you move back to the small town to raise your own family...My kids have discovered that they can't get away with much of anything...my mother is the school nurse, the elementary school principal is a close family friend and his secretary and I were friends in high school...my aunt is a teacher in the middle school, the middle school secretary has been a family friend for years, my uncle is a teacher in the high school, and many of the other high school teachers know me from when I was a student! If it happens, I hear about it! :)