My Moment in Time Was the Day I Heard My Son S Name Announced As the Outstanding High School

We all wish for that moment in time. That song played for me when I heard my son’s name announced as the Outstanding Elsik High School Student. I was his mother, his motivator, and, I was his computer science team teacher. And today, he is a great math teacher.

I think the letter I gave him on August 13, 1996 and published in the Houston Chronicle,

"A Few Words for New Teachers," expresses my feelings best. It was even read on a radio station.

To my son on his first day of teaching,

The critical reality –

You have just graduated with honors in mathematics from the University of Texas. You should be prepared for your job as a teacher. But, my heart cries. I fear you are living in a naive world, as all those who have never taught the unmotivated, undisciplined student day after day. I fear the criticism of the public, politicians and parents, who will blame you for their child's failure, will discourage you. But please don't take responsibility for the student's failure to learn. It will kill your motivation to teach. Remember that you teach, students learn and parents provide the encouragement and intrinsic base for learning.

Please remember that all you can do is your best, as you have always done. Love and encourage your students and their parents, as I love you. Write about your accomplishments and disappointments and I will try and pull from my experience as a teacher and parent to help you have empathy for those without the wisdom to understand. As Socrates says, " Goodness is based on wisdom, and evil on ignorance. No wise person deliberately chooses what is bad, but people, through ignorance, make a wrong choice that appears to be good at the time." Help your students to make the right choice – to listen, to work, to study – to have the self-discipline to take responsibility for their education. Help your students to love learning as much as you do. Keep caring! That is what students see. That caring classroom feeling will motivate achievement more than all the laws, materials, money and lessons around. Don't hurry, be patient. It takes TIME to learn.

You will be a GREAT teacher! Keep your motivation alive and have FUN teaching!

Love Mom, your first and foremost teacher.

And he did it! On mother's day this year he gave me a letter he had received from the

University of Texas recognizing him as the teacher one of his former students said made the biggest difference in her high school education. So, this event call teaching, it still brings rewards. And when I get discouraged and tired, I think of my son in his classroom, and all my children in my classroom, and I work a little harder.