I came across my little sink today. I can remember making this as a kid. The smell of the art room. The way the sinks were arranged. How large the space was. I can remember the assignment. “Make a pinch pot.” I can remember thinking that I wanted to make a tiny sink, and I did. I appreciate the teachers I had who didn’t make demands about sticking to their assignment. The teachers who encouraged us to think, outside the box, to dream up new ideas, to try new things, and who didn’t make our “assignments” all about filling in blanks or bubbles. They are the teachers I remember. The teacher who let me design a cardboard house, with a wall sized aquarium in my bedroom. The teacher who built “space” out of a plastic bubble so we could colonize another planet. The teacher who read me poetry by Alfred Lord Tennyson before I was even old enough really understand all the words. I can still remember the lines to this day… “He clasps the crag with crooked hands; / Close to the sun in lonely lands, / Ring’d with the azure world, he stands.” I was eight when she taught us that poem. Thirty years later, I can remember. Crystal clear.
I remember how much my teacher loved Garfield. I remember her bringing her tiny dog to class. I remember watching the birds eat suet on the window sill. I remember playing hot dog stand on the TRS-80 and how my teacher encouraged my love of technology. I remember getting to design a card on the computer in fifth grade and the sound the dot matrix printer made when it printed it.
I remember what I appreciate. I hope they know how much I appreciate them all. Because their inspiration lives on, years later. I carry it with me. They weren’t training me, telling me what to do and how to do it, nor forcing me to act a certain way. Each and every one of them that I remember was helping me to become myself. They were cultivating passion. They were giving me the confidence to think for myself. They valued creativity. They made me feel loved. They were showing me what the most important things are for a teacher to do.
I’m grateful.