Teachers for Whom I’m Thankful

I had memorable teachers for whom I’m thankful, and I’d enjoy hearing about the ones who are yours.

Books

I’ll start by mentioning my mother. She chose teaching for her profession, and at various points taught nearly every grade of elementary and middle school. One of the best things she did for me happened earlier in my life than most people probably expect. You see, when I was two, I informed her that I could read by pointing at a newspaper ad, and saying, “Look, Mom, that says Kroger.”

Shortly after that, she affixed flash cards to nearly everything in the house, and expanded my vocabulary with nouns and adjectives. To teach me verbs, like jump, we’d do the action together. Almost every time we shopped (at Meijer, despite my ad reading), she would buy me a different Little Golden Book: Prayers for Children, Counting with Kittens, The Little Red Hen, Sleepytime Train, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and more. They were the start of my library, and our family still had them decades later for my nieces and nephews.

She also taught me how libraries work, and allowed me to bring home as many books as I could carry.

Another of the memorable teachers for whom I am thankful was Dale Cooper, who taught the church history class I had in high school. Later, he was the chaplain at Calvin College. I still recall a phrase that would recur in his lectures, People of God.

My favorite of the memorable teachers for whom I am thankful was Stanley Wiersma. He’d allow me to visit his office between classes, where we’d discuss books and poetry. He introduced me to the works of Marianne Moore, and an Australian writer, Patrick White. Professor Wiersma hung poems written by other students on his bulletin board, and I very much wanted one of mine to be there as well.

Instead, he did something for me that I absolutely did not expect. I had shown him a series of seven poems I wrote, that together, told a story. Back then, there was a magazine called Christianity in Literature, which sponsored a nationwide contest for student writers. He entered my poems in that contest, and shocked me on a day when I was feeling somewhat down, with the announcement that my poems had won me a prize.

I’d like to hear from you, about memorable teachers for whom you are thankful. What did they teach you?

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