Subject: Re: Happy Holidays and Thank YOU!!!
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2012 08:36:06 -0800

Happy Holidays to you, too. Thank you for doing such a great job with my son. Despite his challenges with attention, I think he is doing really well in your classroom. I am so grateful for your efforts to see who he is,  as I know you do for every one of your students.

I also just wanted to say that I know the Connecticut shooting has been especially difficult for those of us who both have young children and know the sacrifices teaching requires. Many of my friends who are new to teaching were quite shaken by it.

I have experienced first hand, in my student teaching, how much teachers come to care for all the kids in their classroom. It’s not like we plan it – it just happens because we are human, we are empathetic. Teachers are in the profession because of who they are – good people who like children and choose to make a positive difference in the world.

I know most teachers would not hesitate to protect their kids any way they could, as those teachers in Connecticut did. None of us  – parents or teachers – ever expect or want to be in that situation, but I also know teachers are fully aware of that responsibility every day, even if we parents don’t think twice about it. We trust so much to our kids’ teachers, and we are rarely disappointed.

Teachers like you are my heroes every day. You teach our kids how to deal with conflict, talk to each other, to express their feelings with words (not guns). You teach them to take responsibility for their actions. Teachers (not to mention the playground monitors) model peaceful conflict resolution every single day.

Robert Fulghum was right – we really do learn everything we need to know in kindergarten.

This is ending up to be quite a treatise. Sorry for the length, but I guess I had more than I thought to say.

Just thank you. Thank you.

Solveig