Dear Great Teachers, Thanks for Teaching Us

I was going to be a teacher once. It didn’t work out. Outside of a few transcendent moments from breakthrough students, I simply wasn’t cut out for it.

I respect teachers more than any other profession, especially with the weight of experience behind me; with the understanding that Teaching. Is. Hard. Work. So I often think of the teacher who inspired me to try teaching in the first place: Mr. Hofflander in Biology I and II.

It’s not often you can thank your teachers. But a new site from TBD makes it a little easier: Dear Great Teachers, Thanks for Teaching Us.

I put my two cents in.

Dear Mr. Hofflander,

Thanks for doing biology the right way; which is to say, doing it in a way that leaves a permanent mark on your students, one that pushes them – possibly – to become teachers themselves, and one that helps them cope with the fact that, even though they may not be cut out for teaching, they will find their own niche, just as all successful species find their own niche through a process of natural selection and differentiation.

You inspired me to make mistakes and learn from them.

Your student,
Corey Vilhauer

Grade: 12
School: Lincoln High School
City: Sioux Falls, SD

Thanks, Mr. Hofflander. Again and always.

Via: @sigepcory.