Interviews

Grateful Grads: Thanking Teachers

Taylor Mali

I grew up writing thank-you notes. Real, honest-to-goodness, pen-and-ink, stamped and posted letters. More than simple habit, it's about what the commitment to expressing your thoughts and feelings in writing says about the character of the writer. About the joy such notes bring to the reader. Creation of such happiness is enough rank writing thank-you notes as one of the most important things in life.

It has to do with gratitude. Being thankful for where and who you are today. Expressing that thanks to the people who helped you get there.
Teaching is a field peppered with unexpected rewards, like gratitude. Knowing what it is like to strive in this field, and what one word of thanks can mean to a teacher, I urge everyone this graduation season to thank his or her teachers.

In many ways, What Teachers Make: In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World is just one big thank-you note to my teachers. The book is dedicated to my fifth and sixth grade English teacher, Dr. Joseph D'Angelo, a massive force of erudition, martial artistry, culture, and love. It is a collection of learning experiences that made me who I am, and it documents teachers and students who taught me a lifetime of invaluable lessons.

But you do not have to write a book to say thank you. And although I hate to admit it, an actual letter really isn't necessary these days either. An e-mail or phone call will do. Or better yet, a heartfelt thanks at the upcoming ceremony. It makes a world of difference to a teacher. Almost better than a snow day.

When students have thanked me in the past for being their teacher, I have always felt that it was actually my love for the art of teaching they were speaking to. They weren't really telling me I was a great teacher so much as they were saying, "I can see that you love what you do, and that made it fun to be in your class. It was great to be taught by someone who didn't just view teaching as something they did, but who they were."

No graduation speaker will ever tell you that the future is anything but uncertain. It never is. But graduations need not only be obsessed with looking ahead; a graduation can be a day on which we turn back and trace our steps to see how we ended up where we are.