So Long, Teacher!

 Today, a teacher retired.  

I don’t know how long she was a teacher, but she’s been a teacher ever since I’ve known her.  English was her specialty.  When I wrote a letter announcing to the world that I’d met the woman of my dreams and had asked her to marry me, my wife read over it and frowned.  “You have to correct some grammar mistakes.  My mom’s an English teacher.”

Apparently, you have to put your best grammatical foot forward when you’ve become engaged to an English teacher’s daughter.

I thought the whole thing was cute.  Over the years that followed, teaching has consumed her life.  And teaching isn’t one of those easy professions.  You know, the kind that leave allow room for goofing around if you’re feeling a little lazy one day.  Or the kind that let you shift gears as you please just so long as you deliver on time and under budget.  No, teaching is pretty unforgiving.  And, as my mother-in-law puts it, a teacher gets “9 months to do 12 months of work.”  I never thought about it that way, but it makes sense.  For much of the time I’ve known her, life is defined by short periods of no papers to grade over the weekend.  That’s a teacher’s definition of vacation.

Tonight we celebrated her retirement.  Tonight I thought about Mr. Lapadat and Ms. Dominguez, my two favorite language teachers.  I thought about Mrs. Juliano and Mrs. Goldschmeid, two of the women who taught me to love my own art.  I thought about Dr. B (the Mrs.) and Mr. McCabe, two English teachers who helped me understand the power of the written (and read) word.  I thought about Mark Kelty who opened my eyes to all kinds of crazy political and historical shit, sparking a love of the human social sciences that led to my major in college.  I thought about other teachers, too: Mrs. French, Mrs. Del Valle, Ms. Portuondo…so many others.  There are faces I recall but names I don’t, and the names I do recall may not be spelled correctly.  Regardless, tonight I think about and thank all of the teachers who touched my life and made me a richer human being all because they cared enough to expend energy towards my education.  I was a royal pain in the ass to so many of you.  My children will honor their teachers.  My children will understand the value of educators and mentors, and they will love and respect them and their great profession.

I celebrated one very specific teacher tonight.  But, left with the echoes of that celebration, I think about and send much compassionate love to every teacher out there.  If you are doing your best to educate our children, then I humbly offer you my deepest respect and my most heartfelt thanks.

So long, teacher!