It's been almost 20 years since my 10th grade English class. As I had a moment to reflect tonight, my tenth grade teacher left an unmistakable mark on my entire life and career in those 20 years. I remember her not being a favorite at the time, but as the years have flown by, she stands out above so many forgotten names.
So I just found her on facebook and wrote her a letter. I thought sharing it here might inspire a few of you other yokels to do the same for one of your favorite teachers.
(By the way, any of you RHS Raiders in that class remember those weird ass drawings posted on the wall? "Da Lizard King likes Da Blue Bus" etc.?)
Dear Mrs. Hayes-
I am so happy to find you on Facebook! I've thought of you often over the years and the difference you made in my life.
I'm not sure if you remember me, I was a student of yours at Rangeview back in the early 90s. I just attended a parent info night at a local charter school, Westgate, as I consider where to enroll my oldest son in first grade next year. The director was a passionate educator, with a philosophy of discovering gifts and talents in as many kids as possible. She related several anecdotes from her experience, and discussed the many types of gifted children she came across.
Some of the classifications she noted included "underachiever" and "underground" kids. This reminded me of you, as I recall you talking about smart kids sometimes. You would point out how some kids would hide their smarts from the system so as to avoid insane expectations and stress, avoid getting additional work and avoid being labeled in uncomfortable ways in peer groups.
It was my senior year and I was no longer in your class. I started in AP English that year but dropped it within a few weeks. I don't really remember the exact reason except for a vague memory of not getting along with the AP teacher on some fundamental level. I remember you hunting me down at my locker and refusing to let me snooze by in regular english class. You wouldn't take no for an answer until I agreed to do an independent study research paper with you.
I agreed, but just to ruffle your feathers (because I knew you led a bible study group at the school), I picked the topic for my paper to be "Legalize Drugs". Although I didn't know this at the time myself, I think this was a challenge from me to you to see how fair and committed you would really be. May I say that you were all class, and objectively reviewed and edited my paper based on the facts and structures I proposed, without taking me to task for the opposite political stance I staked out. I still have a copy of that paper today, I go back and read it once in a while.
Unfortunately, you created a monster that semester. I now have an insatiable appetite for looking past the surface issues of any topic and a passion for researching everything. I also have this incredibly annoying habit to push myself beyond what I think is just good enough. This creates significant annoyance to my wife, colleagues and friends… that is, until I find something better than the easy/obvious choice of whatever topic is at hand.
So thank you Mrs. Hayes. Thank you for never giving up on me even though you had no obligation to be my teacher that year. Thank you for pushing me to do more than the educational system ever bothered to ask of me. Thank you for igniting a fire in me that will never die. I can only hope my three boys come across a teacher as unflinching and passionate as you were at some point in their life.
My sincerest wishes that you are happy in life and I hope you know what an impact you've had on certainly countless others like me.
Love,
-Ryan Seabury
Ps- I made cheat sheets for all your Word Wealth quizzes. Funny thing is… by making the cheat sheets I pretty much learned all the vocabulary! I have a feeling you knew this!
No comments:
Post a Comment