(originally published on June 8, 2010)
Skipnote: The school year's just about over. Here's something to think about:
On the first day of school, Jean Thompson told her students, “Boys and girls, I love you all the same. I have no favorites.”
Of course, she wasn’t being completely truthful. Teachers do have favorites and, what’s worse, most teachers have students that they just don’t like.
Teddy Stallard was a boy that Miss Thompson just didn’t like. He didn’t seem interested in school. There was a deadpan, blank expression on his face and his eyes had a glassy, unfocused appearance. When she spoke to Teddy, he always answered in monosyllables. His clothes were musty and his hair was unkempt. He wasn’t an attractive boy and he certainly wasn’t likable.
Teachers have records. And Jean Thompson had Teddy’s.
“First grade: Teddy shows promise with his work and attitude, but poor home situation.”
“Second grade: Teddy could do better. Mother is seriously ill. He receives little help at home.”
“Third grade: Teddy is a good boy, but too serious. He is a slow learner. His mother died this year.”
“Fourth grade: Teddy is very slow, but well behaved. His father shows no interest.”
Christmas came, and the boys and girls brought their presents and piled them on Miss Thompson’s desk. They were all in brightly colored paper except for Teddy’s. His was wrapped in brown paper, held together with Scotch tape. On the paper he had written the simple words, “For Miss Thompson from Teddy.”
When she opened Teddy’s present, out fell a gaudy rhinestone bracelet, with half the stones missing, and a bottle of cheap perfume.
When the other boys and girls began to giggle, Miss Thompson had enough sense to silence them by immediately putting on the bracelet and putting some of the perfume on her wrist. Holding her wrist up for the other children to smell, she said, “Doesn’t it smell lovely? Isn’t the bracelet pretty?” And the children, taking their cue from the teacher, readily agreed.
At the end of the day, when all the children had left, Teddy lingered, came over to her desk and said, “Miss Thompson, I just wanted to tell you that I’m glad you liked my presents. My mother’s bracelet looks real pretty on you, and you smell just like her.”
The next day when the children came, Jean Thompson was a different teacher. She helped all the children, but especially the slow ones, and especially Teddy Stallard.
By the end of that school year, Teddy showed dramatic improvement. He had caught up with most of the students and was even ahead of some.
She didn’t hear from Teddy for a long time. Then one day, she received a note that read:
Dear Miss Thompson:
I wanted you to be the first to know. I will be graduating second in my high school class.
Love,
Teddy Stallard
Four years later, another note came:
Dear Miss Thompson:
They just told me I will be graduating first in my class. I wanted you to be the first to know. The university has not been easy, but I liked it.
Love,
Teddy Stallard
And, four years later:
Dear Miss Thompson:
As of today, I am Theodore J. Stallard, M.D. How about that? I wanted you to be the first to know. I am getting married next month, the 27th to be exact. I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive. You are the only family I have now; Dad died last year.
Love,
Teddy Stallard
At the wedding Teddy stood up in front of everyone and recognized Miss Thompson. "Without her," Teddy said, "I could never have come to this point in my life."
One teacher reached out to one student whose life later positively affected the lives of thousands.
"In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and highest responsibility anyone could have."
--- Lee Iacocca
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