Teachers help students learn to dream big | THE MOM STOP

I knew I wanted to be a writer from a very early age — specifically, I was 11 years old and sitting in my sixth grade classroom while we were studying a unit on various careers. Our teacher, Mrs. Webb, asked us to close our eyes and imagine where we would be in about 15 years.

And as I closed my eyes and imagined my future self, I envisioned sitting down at a keyboard and writing. At that time, I didn’t know exactly what kind of writer I’d become — an author, or maybe a journalist. But I knew I had stories I wanted to tell.

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My father used to tell me often how lucky I was to discover a purpose so young in my life, and to know clearly what my passion was. I’ll admit, I’m thankful I never really worried about what my major would be in college, or what field I’d end up in. I just knew.

It all goes back to a sixth grade teacher who instructed us to close our eyes and imagine.

By the time I got to high school, I signed up for a yearbook class. The class was appealing because it allowed us to go off campus to sell yearbook ads and take pictures of other students or write stories. But the yearbook adviser, Mrs. Holloway, created a classroom where students wanted to be. She allowed us the freedom to think creatively, and created an environment where we felt we belonged.

It was in that room we became a staff and learned to work as a team. Four years later, I finished my high school career as editor of that yearbook. To this day, I’m not sure she ever knew I became a journalist or that her class laid the foundations of my career.

Later in high school, Mrs. Clark’s Advanced Placement History class helped me think critically and write well-organized arguments filled with facts. I’ve seen Mrs. Clark from time to time over the years, but how much I wish I had told her that it was her class that helped me most as a reporter covering local government, because I could organize minute details into something that made seemingly sense.

And then there was Ms. Montgomery’s creative writing class my senior year. While I had long had a passion for writing and thought up so many fictional stories in my head, I had never had a class that forced those stories to paper and challenged me to become a better writer. That is, until she did.

Teaching today has become an often thankless, underpaid profession. It’s a field that fewer and fewer young people are deciding to go into, and yet the demand for teachers to educate the next generation will never go away. And at the same time, I’d argue there are very few other professions that have the chance to shape the lives of so many.

If I could go back in time, I’d thank Mrs. Webb for allowing us to dream. I’d thank Mrs. Holloway for teaching us what it was like to work as a team, to feel like we belonged. I’d thank Mrs. Clark for teaching me to organize my writing, and I’d thank Ms. Montgomery for helping me think creatively and put my stories on paper.

You see, it was never one single teacher who made me who I’ve become. But instead it was a collection of teachers whose impact continues to echo through my career to this day. For that, I am grateful.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all the teachers out there. I hope you know that what you do matters and that you are making a difference.

Lydia Seabol Avant writes The Mom Stop for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at momstopcolumn@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Teachers help students learn to dream big | THE MOM STOP