Education

I want to talk about a school teacher named Mrs. Thompson. Mrs. Thompson had told her children a lie. She didn’t believe she could lie to her children, but she did. So now let me explain the story.

Mrs. Thompson was an educator, a teacher and in her sixth grade class her students were pretty bright, she loved them all the same and she wanted all of them to succeed. She got good response from her students; all of them except one. For the sake of this story let’s call him Greg.

In her class Greg wasn’t clean. He came to school all ruffled, disturb the class a lot, he smelled and needed a bath, he wouldn’t have his assignments, he wouldn’t sit up strait in his seat, and he didn’t care too much about anything that was going on. So Mrs. Thompson decided to do some research and look into what other teachers said about Greg before she got him.

She looked at the first grade teacher’s analyses of Greg and saw she’d written that Greg was a nice guy, a very nice little guy, who got along with the other students, they enjoyed playing with him, it seemed he was bright, he was always neat and clean, and on time.
Then she looked at what the second grade teacher said about Greg and she said similar; that he was attentive, that he cared about other students, and it appeared he’d really try to understand what she was trying to teach and get across to her class.
Next she looked at the third grade teacher’s evaluation of Greg. She said he was slow, he didn’t pay to much attention in class, and that his mother had a terminal disease.
She continued to the fourth grade teacher for her comments, and she said Greg really didn’t care about school now that his mother has died, he didn’t care about his assignments, he was living with his dad, He didn’t care how he acted or what he said or if he said anything at all. She also suggested that if we didn’t find a way to reach him he was going to have some huge, huge issues later in life.
Finally she reviewed what the fifth grade teacher had to say. She said that Greg was a very troubled and problem child and was constantly undermining what she was trying to get across to the other students and that he was a very troubled young man.
So now Mrs. Thompson has him in the sixth grade.

Well, the holidays were near and it was the gift giving season so the students decided to give Mrs. Thompson a gift. The gifts were wrapped with beautiful paper and colorful ribbons but the one that Greg gave her was carelessly thrown in a brown paper bag. No attention was applied to wrap the gift at all. So when Mrs. Thompson began to open the gifts she opened Greg’s first. When she picked up the brown paper bag the children began to laugh, snicker and make remarks, but Mrs. Thompson opened it with kindness because she loved all of her children the same. She handled it just like she would have handled some of the more detailed wrappings. Inside the bag was an old rime stone bracelet with a number of rime stones missing and a half a bottle of perfume. So Mrs. Thompson put on that old rime stone bracelet and dabbed some of the perfume on each wrist and told Greg how wonderful and thoughtful a gift it was and he began to smile. She went through the other gifts. Soon she began to notice something. She noticed that Greg began to pay more attention in class. He began to do and return his homework. He was not so aloof in class and wasn’t disturbing the class as much and he began to be more attentive.
Greg passed to the next grade where he began to exile in his studies and soon graduated. In a few years Mrs. Thompson got a letter from Greg saying he was doing well in high school, and met a lot of teachers but she was by far the best teacher he ever had.
A few years latter she got another letter from Greg saying he’d graduated third in his class and even though he had graduated third in his class she was still by far the best teacher he ever had. A few years went by and Mrs. Thompson received another letter from Greg saying in collage he got his bachelors degree with honors being tops in his class and even though he’d gotten those honors and was tops in his class he reminded her that she was still the best teacher he ever had. A few years later she got another letter from Greg but this time the letter came with Greg’s first name, his last name and the title M.D. Greg had become a Medical Doctor and even in that letter he told Mrs. Thompson that she was the best teacher he ever had. Again Greg sent another letter to Mrs. Thompson saying he was going to be married and that his dad had died a few years back, and that he would love for her to come and sit where his dad would have sat for his wedding. She wrote him back and said she’d be honored.

When she went to the wedding to take that seat she put on that rime stone bracelet that had the missing rime stones, and she dabbed herself with that perfume that came with it. When she got there Greg saw and told her she smelled just like his mother before she passed away.
Mrs. Thompson sat proudly through the Marriage ceremonies when Greg came up to her and said, Thanks for coming and spending time with me, you know you were the best teacher I ever had making sure I learned and stuff. And Mrs. Thompson told Greg, No Greg, thank you for showing me to stop teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic and start teaching children. All those years I’d lied saying I loved all my children the same but by far you were my pet. Thank you Greg, thank you so much, I thank you for showing me how to teach.

Gaidi