Oh teacher I need you....

I wrote this Junior year for Teacher Appreciation Week for NHS. It was worht five volunteer hours. I like teachers, so I wrote about them.

Smart, Helpful, Weird, Caring, Educated, Crazy, Professional, Wise, Sweet, Pest, Nice, Qualified, Old.

After asking students and adults ranging from age 6 to age 77, these are the first adjectives that they thought of when hearing the word “teacher”. Each word can be taken as a compliment, whether the adjective used is the word weird or helpful. Every teacher is a pest once in a while, and, not gonna lie, most of the teachers I’ve had have been crazy, possibly mentally ill. I’ve had young teachers, and I’ve had old teachers, but even though their ages might differ in many years, they all want to accomplish the same thing. Retirement. Although retirement is a fantastic goal to set out for, there’s another accomplishment that comes to mind when actually thinking of why a teacher becomes a teacher.
Old man Webster describes the verb “teach” as thus: instruct; impart knowledge of, direct, and (what seems to be a favorite) discipline. What knowledge do teachers actually want to instill upon us lousy kids? Usually we’re sleeping or text messaging when you’re talking anyway, however whether we’re paying attention, making fun of you, or facing the complete opposite direction with an Algebra 2 folder on our desks while we’re in American History, we’ve all learned something valuable somewhere along the line, and I think it’s safe to say, it was from one of you. Maybe it’s the lesson on how to solve sine and cosine graphs, maybe the chemistry lesson on the periodic pattern of electronegativity which stuck with us through chemistry class. However good these lessons do us in the future, I know that I’ve learned other countless lessons that aren’t necessarily related to Math, History, Science, English, or any of those electives we can choose from.
Aristotle said this: “Those who educate children well are more to be honored than parents, for these only gave life, those the art of living well.” We’re around teachers more than our parents from the ages of 5 to about 18, that being said, we’re bound to learn life lessons from you somewhere along the line. I’ve been observing teachers since kindergarten, my mom’s a teacher, her friends are teachers, and I’ve noticed, they only want what’s best for the students that sit in their classroom for 180 days out of the year. The math teacher might be teaching math, but there’s so much that’s being taught that lies beneath the surface, I know I’ve found it, and I know many other students have found it, and we’ve all discovered it because each one of you has taught it to us. This speech isn’t a brown nosing attempt, I can do that without writing something like this, this is simply the truth of how I and many others feel about a person that means so much more than Webster describes them, this is the truth about how much we appreciate and how much we actually do learn from our teachers.