Nothing vicious, just dumb middle-school stuff.
One day during group work, I\u00a0started imitating him. The teacher didn\u2019t react at\u00a0all. At\u00a0the end of\u00a0class, he\u00a0just said, \u201cHey, hang back a\u00a0second.\u201d I\u00a0braced myself for a\u00a0lecture or\u00a0detention.<\/p>\n
Instead, he\u00a0quietly told me\u00a0that he\u00a0didn\u2019t want to\u00a0sound like this. He\u00a0had a\u00a0stroke in\u00a0his early twenties that left him with a\u00a0lifelong speech impairment. He\u00a0told me\u00a0he\u00a0felt lucky to\u00a0be\u00a0alive so\u00a0my\u00a0words didn\u2019t hurt him but to\u00a0understand that sometimes there\u2019s always more to\u00a0someone\u2019s story.
After that, I\u00a0started standing up\u00a0for him whenever my\u00a0friends made fun of\u00a0him.<\/p>\n
Once I\u00a0knew why, it\u00a0didn\u2019t feel funny anymore. That empathy is\u00a0what has made me\u00a0a\u00a0doctor today.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d just gotten a\u00a0Photoshop license for the school and wanted\u00a0us to\u00a0be\u00a0the first to\u00a0try\u00a0it. She introduced me\u00a0to\u00a0books that were considered to\u00a0be\u00a0above my\u00a0age level (Anne of\u00a0Green Gables and the Little House on\u00a0the Prairie books, mostly) and would let me\u00a0read in\u00a0class if\u00a0I\u2019d finished my\u00a0work, as\u00a0long as\u00a0I\u00a0behaved. She always listened to\u00a0me, made time for\u00a0me, and treated me\u00a0like a\u00a0person worthy of\u00a0respect, and as\u00a0a\u00a0child who was absolutely starved for attention in\u00a0a\u00a0big family, that meant the world to\u00a0me. We\u2019re still friends on\u00a0Facebook today and\u00a0I visit her whenever I\u00a0go back to\u00a0my\u00a0home state! \u00a9<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n I\u00a0missed two months of\u00a0my\u00a0senior year due to\u00a0a\u00a0severe illness that left me\u00a0hospitalized. He\u00a0has a\u00a0family and a\u00a0son that needed a\u00a0lot of\u00a0attention but he\u00a0spent so\u00a0much time with me\u00a0helping me\u00a0get caught up\u00a0not only in\u00a0his class but in\u00a0other classes with less understanding teachers. My\u00a0heart stopped when his teacher texted, \u201cYour son has been learning to\u00a0play piano. I\u00a0have been teaching him to\u00a0play piano after school because he\u00a0wanted to\u00a0surprise you for your birthday. He\u2019s been practicing for three months and didn\u2019t want you to\u00a0find out.<\/p>\n He\u00a0was crying because he\u00a0thought\u00a0I ruined the surprise. But I\u00a0couldn\u2019t let you think\u00a0I was punishing him.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n I\u00a0was a\u00a0sweet kid, so\u00a0when\u00a0I blew up\u00a0in\u00a0class she took me\u00a0outside and\u00a0I told her. She went through this whole thing where she was helping my\u00a0family. Mrs. Voigt, wherever you are, Thank You.\u00a0\u00a9<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n My\u00a0son had been withdrawn lately, and\u00a0I assumed the worst. I\u00a0hesitated, then admitted we\u2019d recently lost my\u00a0husband and it\u2019s been a\u00a0struggle. She nodded and said, \u201cThat explains why he\u2019s been coming in\u00a0early.\u201d Sometimes they talked. Sometimes they didn\u2019t. I\u00a0walked away realizing that while\u00a0I worried about school, someone there had been quietly helping carry my\u00a0child through a\u00a0hard season.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n He\u00a0sat me\u00a0down in\u00a0a\u00a0room, just the two of\u00a0us, and put a\u00a0piece of\u00a0lined A4\u00a0paper and a\u00a0pencil in\u00a0front of\u00a0me. He\u00a0asked me\u00a0to\u00a0write about something\u00a0I was interested\u00a0in, and then about something else I\u00a0liked. As\u00a0I\u00a0wrote, he\u00a0kept gently pulling the paper away, forcing me\u00a0to\u00a0keep pulling it\u00a0back.<\/p>\n I\u00a0got the message immediately. He\u00a0wasn\u2019t smug or\u00a0angry. He\u00a0never raised his voice.<\/p>\n He\u00a0simply showed me\u00a0how difficult a\u00a0teacher\u2019s job can become when one student keeps disrupting the flow. One day after class, my\u00a0teacher stopped me\u00a0and asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s making homework so\u00a0hard for you?\u201d I\u00a0admitted that home was loud and crowded, with nowhere to\u00a0sit and concentrate. There was always noise, always interruptions, and by\u00a0the time things settled, I\u00a0was exhausted. She simply told me\u00a0I could stay in\u00a0the classroom during lunch to\u00a0work. She never wrote me\u00a0up. She never made a\u00a0big deal of\u00a0it.<\/p>\n She just gave me\u00a0a\u00a0desk, some calm, and a\u00a0chance to\u00a0keep\u00a0up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Let\u2019s face\u00a0it, school can be\u00a0boring and sometimes teachers are the quiet heroes that make school a\u00a0fun place. Here are the stories of\u00a016\u00a0teachers who know no\u00a0limits to\u00a0creativity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nothing vicious, just dumb middle-school stuff.One day during group work, I\u00a0started imitating him. The teacher didn\u2019t react at\u00a0all. At\u00a0the end of\u00a0class, he\u00a0just said, \u201cHey, hang back a\u00a0second.\u201d… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toppressnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toppressnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toppressnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toppressnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toppressnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/toppressnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1883,"href":"https:\/\/toppressnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1882\/revisions\/1883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toppressnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toppressnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toppressnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toppressnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
He\u00a0said we\u00a0could come into his classroom any lunchtime we\u00a0wanted to\u00a0play around with\u00a0it.\u00a020\u00a0years later we\u2019re both designers and use Photoshop every day.\u00a0That<\/i>\u00a0is\u00a0what a\u00a0teacher should\u00a0be.\u00a0\u00a9<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
She had two hedgehogs that were classroom pets and\u00a0I absolutely adored them. I\u00a0would stay after school in\u00a0her classroom waiting for my\u00a0dad to\u00a0pick me\u00a0up, reading and playing with the hedgehogs.
When she found out that\u00a0I didn\u2019t have a\u00a0mom to\u00a0go\u00a0to\u00a0Mother\u2019s Day\/mother-daughter events with, my\u00a0teacher took me\u00a0to\u00a0them, and she even took me\u00a0on\u00a0a\u00a0road trip with her to\u00a0visit a\u00a0friend of\u00a0hers in\u00a0Canada who bred hedgehogs.<\/p>\n\n
He\u2019s now my\u00a0boss and\u00a0I hope he\u00a0knows how much that meant to\u00a0me\u00a0when\u00a0I was a\u00a0teenager who was scared that she was going to\u00a0die but wanted to\u00a0graduate anyway.\u00a0\u00a9<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n
I\u00a0was on\u00a0the verge of\u00a0dropping out but just like that, she saved\u00a0me.<\/p>\n\n
When we\u00a0finally spoke, the teacher didn\u2019t mention grades or\u00a0behaviour. Instead, she asked how things were at\u00a0home.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0hadn\u2019t known he\u00a0was arriving before the bell every day. She told me\u00a0he\u00a0sat quietly at\u00a0his desk, and she\u2019d started keeping the classroom open early just so\u00a0he\u00a0wouldn\u2019t have to\u00a0wait alone outside.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u00a0just wanted him to\u00a0feel safe somewhere,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n
That moment really helped me\u00a0improve my\u00a0behavior. I\u00a0hope you\u2019re enjoying your retirement, Mr. Lowe.\u00a0\u00a9<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
She didn\u2019t argue or\u00a0correct\u00a0me.<\/p>\n\n