A Teacher’s Impact
Earlier this week, I spent three days visiting a peer school and leading a committee of educators from around New England tasked with evaluating that school for reaccreditation; all independent schools in our region go through a process like this periodically. For those of us visiting, it was a wonderful chance to immerse ourselves in another school culture and learn from excellent peers. For me, this visit was special in another way. A member of the visiting team was one of my favorite teachers from when I was a boy in high school. Aside from my parents, he was probably the biggest influence on how I grew up and on the person I’ve become. He is a big reason I became a teacher. We have stayed in touch over the years, which has mostly consisted of me asking for advice. I have just recently made the transition to calling him by his first name! Our relationship is different now, but I still find so much comfort in his support, friendship, and love.
Last weekend, we hosted an event for bbin娱乐平台 alumni from the 1990s – the first generation of the school’s life. In the early stages of our planning, we wondered how we would convince the graduates to come back. Our answer: bring back their teachers. Giants in the life of the school walked the halls again – teachers from the early years like Mark Davies, John Talbot, Megan Staples, Sandra Michelman, Catherine Pollock, and Rich Horn, people who helped shape the curriculum and culture we now steward. In one touching moment, an alumna gave a copy of her recently-published book of poetry to one of those teachers as a recognition of the role he played at the start of her literary journey. She is now a professor of literature, passing it on to the next generation.
The historian Henry Adams once wrote that “A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” Perhaps it never does. These moments made me even more grateful for the dedicated and talented teachers I work with every day here and who will be lifelong mentors for this generation of bbin娱乐平台 students.