I used to take the Valentine's I got from the students and paste them onto an oversized cardboard heart which I could hang from the lights. Over the years there were quite a few of them and they really were kind of fun to hang each year. They brought back memories of the students.
The thing I miss about teaching is the never ending kaleidoscope of students that passed through our school. The students changed over the years and it became more difficult to reach some of them This was not due so much to the students themselves but rather to the way they had been raised. Parents as enablers who did not hold students accountable for accomplishing the required work became more frequent. Fortunately this type of parent was still in the minority but there were more of them and they took some of the joy out of teaching.
There are a lot of students who stand out abong the hundreds which I taught. I still see some of them and they really enrich my life. I hope I encouraged them and prepared them for the future. You see those Hallmark commercials where someone brings a card into a teacher to wish them a happy retirement and that is really a special feeling. When you know that what you have done has made a difference in someone's life, that is the real reward in teaching.
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