When I was a child in public school in Houston, we had an annual ritual of sending handmade valentines to everyone else in the class, so that no one was left out. It was a day to express not only love but friendship and kindness.
These days, teachers don’t get the love, kindness, respect, and gratitude they deserve. A lot of tinhorn politicians have been pretending to be tough guys by disparaging those who taught them.
Please draft a short thank-you to a teacher who affected your life. Tell them how much you appreciate what they did for you. Tell them you remember them.
When I wrote my last book, I dedicated a chapter to my high school home room teacher and best English teacher, Mrs. Ruby Ratliff. I titled it “What Would Mrs. Ratliff Do?” I tried to imagine her contempt for the currently fashionable idea of judging teachers by their students’ test scores. Mrs. Ratliff always let us know that we were responsible for our work. She was certainly not shirking her responsibility. She was teaching character. I thank her, and I thank my high school principal Mr. Brandenburg, and my fifth grade teacher Mrs. Rose, and my college political science professor Mr. Stratton, and my mentor in graduate school Lawrence Cremin.
One thing I never forgot about Mrs. Ratliff. When I graduated high school, she gave me two lines of poetry as a graduation present: one read, “To seek, to find, and not to yield.” It was from Tennyson’s “Ulysses.” The other was “Among them, but not of them.” It was from Byron’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.” The best gift ever.
Whom do you wish to shower with gratitude on Valentine’s Day? Show the love”.
Diane Ravitch
