To All Teachers: 'Opening Day' Heroes Still Making a Difference!

I know exactly how teachers feel. It's August. The 'letter' comes. Summer, as you know it, is over.

You feel like Indiana Jones trying to outrace the GIANT BALL...just remember, he makes it... and keeps his hat!

You trudge to your classroom to set up the desks. In no time, your hands have the grim of the summer months still on them. Sweat. This is the 'pre-show' prep that kids rarely see. For some of you veteran teachers, this is 'old hat' ; for the young guns, it is still 'nervous time.' But right around the corner it's "Opening Day!"

So, I thought it might say a few words of encouragement to both groups. After all, I spent '32 seasons in the big leagues'...all at Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego. I know a thing or two about how long the season is and how difficult it can be to 'manage your team.'  To paraphrase Oprah: Here's what I know for sure!

Part 1--"Teaching and Inspiring Are Not Mutually Exclusive!" Sometimes teachers have a pretty good feeling about what they have accomplished with their students; however, there are those classes, those years, when one walks to the parking lot wondering Is there anything I am saying and doing making a difference at all? 

The best answer I have for teachers is a vignette about Armin Yagazarin. Many years ago, a thirty-something man walked into my classroom wearing a beret. He was quietly looking at some posters and projects that I had placed on the "Oh Board"--more on that later. The bell had just rung and school was over. He turned to me and said, "Do you remember me?" I looked at him and I can't remember exactly if did, but when he said his first name Armin...I interrupted him and slapped my hands together and said, "Yagazarin! Of course, I remember you!" He seemed surprised but he smiled.

He told me he came back to campus to thank me. We shook hands. So you are asking yourself what's the big deal? Here it is. Armin Yagazarin was a freshman in my class at least 10 years earlier, and he was known as Mr. 88%. Why? Because it seemed no matter how hard he tried, he always finished with a B+...five times in a row. At the semester, he was Mr. 88% and that trend was continuing....

So when the last day of school came, and I called each student up to let them know what grade they earned, naturally, the alphabet ended with Mr. 88%. Armin just shouted to me, "Forget it, Mr. Pacilio. I already know my grade." I insisted that he come up anyway.

He dragged himself out of his desk, defeated. His hands glued into his pockets. His fate inevitable. I said, "Well, you had an 88.9%." He nodded. He was about to spin back to his seat. I said, "Well you should look at your report card." He did. Almost disdainfully, he pointed to the grade and said, "You made a mistake. You have the wrong grade there." I looked him right in the eye and told him, "Mr. Yagazarin, anyone else I have taught who had 88% the entire year would have just stopped trying a long time ago. I can't think of a student more deserving of an A than you."

He walked back to his desk and his body language was different.

So the young man in the beret wanted to tell me that that very moment mattered far more than I could ever imagine. It propelled him to art school and to his career as an artist. Who woulda known?
I didn't even teach art.

None of us do. We don't teach math, English, music, science, singing, dancing, history, drama, vocational skills, a foreign language, or even Speech and Debate.
We teach kids.
We are in the 'Kid Business."
And I know that the teachers getting ready for 'Opening Day" will reap their fortunes.
It might just take a while.
That much I am sure of.

p.s. If you note the date of this blog you will see it was two years exactly that I started my Bob Pacilio's Metaphor Cafe blogs and in that time over 32,000 page views have been recorded ...and 37 followers! I thought it timely to remind the 'young guns and the old gunslingers of the "Wild West Classrooms" to get a dash of inspiration. I'll be speaking at schools this year--to teachers and students so don't hesitate to call my name. www.robertpacilio.net or robertpacilio@gmail.com
p.p.s. My newest novel will be out this Fall "Meet Me at Moonlight Beach"

   Part 1 of my 'back to school' installments on my blog located at the Metaphor Cafe)