[etni] FW: Heroes..even though it's from the US, applicable to us too!!!
- From: ask@xxxxxxxx
- To: etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 21:55:31 -0700
From: "Elaine Baker" <elaine1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: FW: Heroes..even though it's from the US, applicable to us too!!!
Heroes
"Where are the heroes of today?" a radio talk show host thundered. He
blames society's shortcomings on education. Too many people are looking for
heroes in all the wrong places. Movie stars and rock musicians, athletes,
and models aren't heroes; they're celebrities.
Heroes abound in our schools, public, private and parochial, a fact that
doesn't make the news. There is no precedent for the level of violence,
drugs, broken homes, child abuse, and crime in today's America. Education
didn't create these problems but deals with them every day.
You want heroes?
Consider Dave Sanders, the schoolteacher shot to death while trying to
shield his students from; two youths on a shooting rampage at Columbine High
School in Littleton, Colorado. Sanders gave his life, along with 12
students, and other less heralded heroes survived the Colorado blood bath.
You want heroes?
Jane Smith, a Fayetteville, NC teacher, was moved by the plight of one
of her students, a boy dying for want of a kidney transplant So this woman
told the family of a 14 year old boy that she would give him one of her
kidneys.
And she did. When they subsequently appeared together hugging on the Today
Show, even Katie Couric was near tears.
You want heroes?
Doris Dillon dreamed all her life of being a teacher. She not only made
it, but she was one of those wondrous teachers who could bring the best out
of every single child. One of her fellow teachers in San Jose, Calif. said,
"She could teach a rock to read." Suddenly she was stricken with Lou
Gehrig's disease, which is always fatal, usually within five years. She
asked to stay on the job--and did. When her voice was affected, she
communicated by computer.
Did she go home? Absolutely not! She is running two elementary school
libraries! When the disease was diagnosed, she wrote the staff and all the
families that she had one last lesson to teach, that dying is part of
living. Her colleagues named her Teacher of the Year.
You want heroes?
Bob House, a teacher in Gay, Georgia, tried out for Who Wants to be a
Millionaire. After he won the million dollars, a network film crew wanted to
follow up to see how it had impacted his life. New cars? Big new house?
Instead, they found both Bob House and his wife still teaching. They
explained that it was what they had always wanted to do with their lives,
and that would not change. The community was both stunned and gratified.
You want heroes?
Last year the average schoolteacher spent $468 of his/her own money for
student necessities--workbooks, pencils--supplies kids had to have but could
not afford. That's a lot of money from the pockets of the most poorly paid
teachers in the industrial world.
Schools don't teach values? The critics are dead wrong. Public education
provides more Sunday school teachers than any other profession. The average
teacher works more hours in nine months than the average 40-hour employee
does in a year.
You want heroes?
For millions of kids, the hugs they get from a teacher are the only hugs
they will get that day because the nation is living through the worst
parenting in history. An Argyle, Texas kindergarten teacher hugs her little
5 and 6 year-olds so much that both the boys and the girls run up and hug
her when they see her in the hall, at the football games, or in the malls
years later.
A Michigan principal moved me to tears with the story of her attempt to
rescue a badly abused little boy who doted on a stuffed animal on her desk,
one that said, "I love you!" He said he'd never been told that at home. This
is a constant in today's society: two million unwanted, unloved, abused
children in the public schools, the only institution that takes them all in.
You want heroes?
Visit any special education class and watch the miracle of personal
interaction, a job so difficult that fellow teachers are awed by the
dedication they witness. There is a sentence from an unnamed source, which
says, "We have been so eager to give our children what we didn't have that
we have neglected to give them what we did." What is it that our kids really
need? What do they really want? Math, science, history and social studies
are important, but children need love, confidence, encouragement, someone to
talk to, someone to listen, standards to live by. Teachers provide upright
examples, the faith and assurance of responsible people.
You want heroes?
Then go down to your local school and see our real live heroes, the ones
changing lives for the better each and every day!
Now, pass this on to someone you know who's a teacher, or to someone who
should thank a teacher today. I'd like to see this sent to all those who cut
down the importance of teachers. They have no idea what a schoolteacher is
or what he/she does.
Theodora Pavlou
Seventh Grade Language Arts Teacher
Westwood NJ Jr/Sr High School
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