Note #20

This weekend was filled with graduation celebrations. Memories of my own formal educational experiences and several influential teachers came flooding back. Today's note is written to my first grade teacher.

Dear Carolyn,

One of my first memories of school is a self-portrait that hung on the bulletin board in the first grade classroom at Franklin Elementary School. I drew a picture of myself, announcing "When I grow up, I want to be a teacher." In the drawing, I was dressed in a brightly colored dress with a full skirt, just like one that you wore in our classroom. You were a six-year-old girl's hero.

At home, my playtime was spent pretending to be a teacher. Dick, Jane, Sally, Puff, and Spot held important places in our basement playroom, right beside Dr. Seuss, the Palmer Method, and a chalkboard mounted on the wall. I loved creating bulletin boards for my mom's classroom, serving as a high school teacher's aide, and helping elementary math students as a summer school assistant.

Even now, after working for 37 years in the field of education, I can't think of anything else I'd rather do. Thank you for being a role model and inspiring me to become an educator. I truly believe teaching is the most important profession in the world.

Gratefully,
Jill