Teacher of the Year

Today was a tough day for my wife Julie. It was the last day of the homeschool co-op’s fall semester. Julie teaches grammar classes to kids there. I went to pick her and our kids up this afternoon, and found several mom’s a-weeping. One told me that I will never know how much Julie means to her kids. I told her that’s true, but then, she will never know what her kids meant to Julie. I’ve watched my wife discover a real gift for teaching grammar and writing to kids. She’s got a passion for it. Over the past year or so, I’ve watched her sit up late, preparing lessons for her kids, working long hours to make writing and grammar exciting for them, and to do her part to make our homeschool community work. Seems to me, watching from a distance, that she has surprised herself by how good she is at it, how much she loves it, and how much she’s come to care about helping young minds come alive with love of words and sentence structure. It’s hard for me to express how proud I am of her, and grateful for what she’s given to those children, and to our own.

Her class — fourth graders — made her a bound collection of farewell notes today. I was just looking through them, and I swear, they’ll bring tears to your eyes, even if you’re not married to her. One little girl wrote that she hated writing, and was scared of it, until taking Julie’s class. Mrs. Dreher helped her not to be afraid of words, the girl said, and now she thinks she might become a writer one day, and that she will never forget “the teacher that changed my view of writing forever.” Another child, a boy with a learning disability, wrote that she made him feel “protected” in the classroom, because he always believed that she was looking out for all the kids, and wanted them “to be OK.” On and on like this. It was a real Goodbye, Mrs. Chips kind of day, I think.

I didn’t know this, because I’ve never seen her teach, but apparently Julie’s signature phrase with the kids is, “Don’t freak out.” Somebody found a tote bag with that slogan on it, and gave it to her. She also got an eight-pack of Dr Pepper, and all kinds of gift cards and good things. But mostly she got a bunch of beautiful memories from some dear, dear people.

Don’t freak out. Goodbyes are supposed to be hard.