Teaching Me About Teaching (Charles Blow/NYTimes)

[eppur_se_muova]

Next week is National Teacher Appreciation Week, and, as far as I’m concerned, they don’t get nearly enough.

On Tuesday, the United States Department of Education is hoping that people will take to Facebook and Twitter to thank a teacher who has made a difference in their lives. I want to contribute to that effort. And I plan to thank a teacher who never taught me in a classroom but taught me what it meant to be an educator: my mother.

She worked in her local school system for 34 years before retiring. Then she volunteered at a school in her district until, at age 67, she won a seat on her local school board. Education is in her blood.

Through her I saw up close that teaching is one of those jobs you do with the whole of you — trying to break through to a young mind can break your heart. My mother cared about her students like they were her own children. I guess that’s why so many of them dispensed with “Mrs. Blow” and just called her Mama.

She wasn’t just teaching school lessons but life lessons. For her, it was about more than facts and figures. It was about the love of learning and the love of self. It was the great entangle, education in the grandest frame, what sticks with you when all else falls away. As Albert Einstein once said: “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.”
***
more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/05/opinion/blow-teaching-me-about-teaching.html

[dkf]

1. Yes my Mom is my greatest teacher also.

She trained to be a teacher, but never became one, working for the government in another division. Instead she stayed at home most of my childhood to raise me and my siblings while pinching pennies like you would not believe. She taught me to read, to save, and to work hard.

Mom's are the most important teacher every child will have.

But she was definitely helped out by my and my siblings teachers. Without them, i don't know where we would be...not even fit to be a cashier!

[Iwillnevergiveup]

2. "Mama" Blow

sure did an excellent job with her son!

K&R

[CRK7376]

3. Actually it

was my Dad. A Professor of Microbiology who also happened to be a fantastic Dad! My Mom would be tied with my Dad, but she ended up teaching less to others while she raised her family. After we kids were grown and not in need of Mom being home with us 24/7 she returned to her classroom to help other kids learn the joy of reading and writing and libraries! My parents were phenomenal educators! Damn good parents too. I couldn't have been more lucky to be their son.

[edcantor]

4. Mom and sister in my family.

High school women's sports teacher, my mom was, and sister a college professor.