Thank You
You ever went from “I don’t care” or “this work is dumb, I’m not doing it” to “thank you”? These are all quotes of an average teenager trying to learn, but also learn to like the educator. You’ve probably had those few teachers that you very much despised of, but I guarantee they made the biggest impact on your life. I’m pretty sure you’ve always wondered why it was like that and, for me, I’m writing this to reflect on how these special educators affected my later life.
Intelligent, but zestful described me my first year of high school. I was angry more often than normal and, attending Christiana; they figured I should cease a counselor. Counseling didn’t really work, but then I came across a wonderful woman named Lynette Carleo. She wasn’t exactly a counselor, well she was a dean, but who knew she could help so much? She was a kindhearted person, but unfortunately because I figured I didn’t even need counseling, I didn’t let her in that easy. In the beginning, to me, she wasn’t so trustworthy because I mean she was an administrator and to me she was on their side. Thinking in that way made me assume that her assistance to my anger was very irrelevant. It wasn’t so easy dealing with anger like mine, but as I started to meet with her more I realized that she wouldn’t give up on me and that she was on my side for real. Now Ms. Carleo just had that type of style when it came to her students. She wanted them to see that she was always there and that her door was always open when she was needed. She was always the type to “look out” even when there wasn’t anything to look for. As I worked with her I started to ease up and of course see things her way. I stopped being so angry and letting everything set me off. Once I started to do that I started to socialize with more people and wow was that a great feeling. She helped me so much, but I only despised of her because I didn’t like expressing myself. Her approach to get close to me was good, but Mr. Polaski’s approach was different.
It was bad enough that I didn’t like social studies, but the teacher made me hate it more. I see him as a very loud and mean teacher. I didn’t really like his style of teaching either. He would give us work and try to teach, but when the class wasn’t quiet he’d sit and let us figure it out on our own. Oh how mad I’d get when he did that. It’s like why was he giving up on us? I never really understood him and why he did thing the way he did until I had a bad day and decided to talk to me. He said to me “you can’t be mad at a consequence in which you acted on getting” and of course I was mad, but it made me listen more. He said “you will never get anywhere being so mad all the time. People won’t want to help you, if you mouth them all the time.” I then asked well since we’re talking why do you do things the way you do? His reply amazed me. He said “you can’t teach those who don’t want to be taught. That’s why when you guys talk I sit and when I sit I can immediately see those who want to learn and those who don’t. You are one of those who want to learn. After while those who don’t want to learn will see others doing better and come to their senses.” I though wow, what a different approach. As I got to know him I realized he had an excessive amount of wisdom and courage in which I needed to hear every day to keep me on track. He went from being a teacher I despised to a teacher I could run to whenever I needed to lift myself. Beside our differences, I learned to appreciate his intelligence.
These are two educators in my life who taught me a lot. They taught me to be patient and always try my best. They taught me to never let my anger get the best of me. Lastly, they taught me that it’s ok to need a shoulder to cry on every here and there. These are people in where I not only found great educators, but very wise friends. I can tell them anything and whenever I need help I know I can count on them.
Moral of it all, never take great educators for granted because you never know if they can become someone you will later thank. They can teach you more than just their job title. And because of that I thank them with every piece of love in me.