One of the biggest reasons I tell people that I became a teacher was that I wanted to make a difference. That gets lost in piles of paperwork and drudgery. Tonight I stayed at work until 8:00 to finish yet another teacher project and was reminded that teachers do make a difference. One of my students from last year was leaving our school. I was saddened because I felt that this particular student had made a lot of progress, in spite of a regrettable situation in her home life.
When I heard that much of the struggle in her home life was being alleviated by the move, I felt better. I was totally unprepared for what her father had told our administration as he checked his children out of school. He said that he didn't know what he would have done without the teachers and staff at my school. He said that every time he was about to give up, the school offered to go more out of its way to help. A whole lot of people helped this family, but I was one of them. I was reminded that some of this hard work pays off. Making the world a better place is much more difficult, much more time consuming and has much less immediate pay off than I imagined. It is however, more than worth it.
