By Indi Rooney
About the time school started around the country, I saw this brilliant and touching (I cried) TV commercial by our brand partner Staples. It made me think of the importance of teachers in our lives. How they conjure talent from so many children and yet they are so often unrecognized.
Everyone has a teacher that more than likely changed their life or at least made an impact or created a special memory. I have so many I can’t even begin to write them all down. But I’m going to write a few right now in honor of the thousands of awesome teachers out there.
I remember Ms. Deana making donuts in our school van in the empty parking lot of our preschool as we waited for the “big kid” bus to arrive. We were singing “Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?” at the top of our lungs. Probably not school-sanctioned, but seriously one of my fondest memories of preschool.
My kindergarten teacher taught us that our actual human heart doesn’t really look like a Valentine heart after all and that it’s about the size of our fist. Mind-blowing to a five-year-old.
My fifth grade PE teacher was supportive of all of us learning to swing a bat during softball. After a little encouragement and some expert coaching from a fellow kid, I hit a dinger over the heads of the outfielders who had moved in because a girl was at bat.
My sixth grade literature teacher gave me a small plaque with her words of encouragement handwritten on the back for reading the most books in class that year. I had that tiny thing well until college and eventually lost it in a move, which broke my heart.
I had an amazing algebra teacher who wore pink men’s dress shirts on Fridays because he maintained pink was a calming color. Seriously. More important, I had almost failed algebra at another school and I ended up with an A at the end of the year thanks to his expert teaching and lots of extra credit homework!
A fantastic art teacher during my junior year believed that EVERYONE could learn to draw. What a remarkable idea! He helped me win a few art contests.
I could go on, but it’s time to ask “who was your favorite teacher?” We’d love to hear. Share your memories in our Facebook comments. We salute teachers everywhere because they help so many young people get through so much with hard work, dedication and by leading by example.
Keep teachers in mind when you shop for office supplies or school supplies. Maybe pick up a package of nice pens for your kid’s teacher. If you don’t have kids in school, swing by and drop off a bag of supplies to the school office in honor of the teachers that got you to where you are today. Chances are, they’ll appreciate that.