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Thank goodness for good teachers By TimHudson in Hudson On Higher Learning January 4, 2010

Like many of you, when I went to college, I continued to work – in my case in my family’s sawmill business. (My father’s famous quote: “I think it is great that you are going to college, and I will support you to the fullest – as long as it doesn’t interfere with your work.” He was just joking – kind of.) Looking back, I am sure it helped me with “time management,” as they say today, but at the time, it seemed to put a lot of pressure on attendance, class work and assignments.

But thanks to the wonderful professors I met who were surprisingly helpful, concerned about my progress and interesting people themselves, my college days, work and all, were filled with fond memories and an important sense of exploration and discovery. And in my case, they led me to a completely unexpected, yet fulfilling, career.

Looking back, I don’t know why my interaction with my college professors surprised me so. After all, I had certainly benefited from really good, rigorous yet caring, teachers in my little K-12 school where I had learned to/been “forced to” diagram sentences, do long division in my head, and memorize important dates in history – all tasks from a bygone era, I suppose.

Perhaps it was because there were more students in my History 101 class (about 120) than in my entire high school graduating class (71 of us if you count Malcolm, who “finished” later after retaking Miss Cook’s Algebra II class one on one during what must have been the most miserable summer he – or she – ever spent).

I remember that I was very nervous when my history professor, widely known to be “tough,” started handing back our first exams. My name was never called. Instead, he called me up to the front of the class and told everyone that, much to my embarrassment and relief, I had made a 99, that he rarely gave “99s” to freshmen, that my grade proved that it “could be done” and that he was willing to stay late to help any and everyone reach the same level.

Even today, I think about what a life-changing event that little bit of encouragement proved to be – leading me to take additional history courses, a major in the unlikely area of Latin American Studies, and a scholarship to study in Colombia where I learned Spanish and found my intellectual home in geography. For someone whose previous primary interest in “school” had been in dunking a basketball and hitting my brother’s wicked curve ball, the influence of this professor and many others was life changing, to say the least.

Here at UHV, we have professors like that: People whose motivational interest is in the welfare of their students. I am proud to call them colleagues.

The longer I am in this business, interestingly, the more I realize that my story is not all that unusual. Practically anyone I know, and I’d bet anyone you know who has achieved very much in life, has benefited from the positive influence of teachers. In fact, I would like to offer a paraphrased version of the old truism about who stands behind the successful man and say that behind every successful person is at least one inspirational teacher.

But teachers seldom get the credit they deserve for the good they do. We entrust them with a key role in our society, indeed a linchpin role in the march of civilization and the human experience. Their work is fundamental to the empowerment of individuals who we so treasure and admire.

Maybe we take them for granted in our rush to applaud the “self-made” man or woman; maybe we remember our life histories so egocentrically that we think we taught ourselves to read, reason and write; maybe our modern penchant for associating wealth with worth has clouded our judgment about the essential role of the teacher – teachers at all educational levels – to our well being and, indeed, to the prospects for a peaceful and productive global society.

Nelson Mandela famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Who controls this most powerful weapon? Teachers, of course. We need to pay them more; respect them appropriately, individually and collectively; and recognize their powerful, awesome position in our world. Most importantly, we need to thank them.

In this season of blessings, I am thankful for a lot, including, while I am on the topic, all my teachers who guided me and critiqued me; all those teachers who took time and cared enough to catalyze my curiosity and who continue to inspire me – even Miss Cook who was so darn tough on Malcolm and the rest of us because she believed so completely in all of us long before we had any clue about our responsibilities and potential. Teachers have the power to change individuals and the world for the better. Thank goodness it’s them.

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