Teachers

Readers who know me personally know me as a hard tough guy who shows no emotion. OK, I wept at the growing old sequence in the movie “Up,” but you’d have to have a heart of obsidian not to do that.

It is with some trepidation, therefore, that I report getting all teary while reading a wonderful essay by Marie Myung-Ok Lee entitled “What I Learned at School” that appeared in the March 31 New York Times. Ms. Lee, who teaches writing at Brown, details how two English teachers in the Hibbing, Minnesota, high school turned her life around.

Almost every successful person can point to teachers along the way who saw something others didn’t, who took the time to encourage, who allowed an odd-ball student some slack, who made room in class for creativity, who saved us. I can name some myself--Mrs. Brown in elementary school, Mr. Gordos, Mr. Geiger, and Mrs. Kittleberger in high school, Dr. Zucker in college, Dr. Eisenach in grad school.

Across the country teachers like those are now under attack. Consider--how many people’s lives were improved by hedge fund managers, bankers, or Republican legislators in Ohio? Who has Corbett inspired? Gov. Christie? How many kids have they saved?

Here’s how Ms. Lee’s essay ends: “While the love of literature and confidence I gained from Ms. Leibfried’s class shaped my career and my life, after only four short years at Hibbing High School, she was laid off because of budget cuts, and never taught again.”