#9: I am thankful for teachers.

Teachers come in all shapes and sizes, teaching all manner of material to their students who are (or are not) eager to be a part of the learning process. Some teach at church (those wonderful ladies and gentlemen who love our children during the Sunday school hour), some teach on the job--every new worker needs training, and still others follow the call to the classroom in a formal school setting (be it grammar, grade, high, or university). As an example, I'll just take a couple of examples from my own experience.

Mr. Young was a tall thin man of color who at some point before I knew him had somehow damaged the index finger on his right hand. The result was that, even when writing on the chalk board (it was the day before white or smart boards) he would point to nowhere in particular--that finger fascinated a variety of sixth-grade boys and perhaps some girls, too. Mr. Young taught sixth-grade spelling. What I remember most about him was that he took time during recess to help every one of the boys in his class celebrate their birthday. "Let's see, how old did you say you were today?" "Nine!" "Okay, hold 'im boys. One. Two. Three. Four. Say have any of you seen that new movie that's out. Wait, where was I, guess I'll just have to start over. One. Two . . ." Life was good, and we knew that we had a friend in our teacher (disclaimer: no students or teachers were harmed in the filming of the preceding scenes). It was Mr. Young who first called me "Professor"--which I hated (but secretly loved).

Mrs. Griffin. My 11th-grade English teacher identified in me a slight talent for the written word and encouraged me to exercise it. I still enjoy dabbling in writing (as you can tell). Mrs. Griffin is the one who entered my name in the National Council of Teachers of English annual writing contest. And the experience earned me the promise of possible scholarship from a number of prestigious universities (so I ignored them all and went to Howard Payne then OBU).

Bill Crider. I've made no secret about my admiration for my first college English teacher at HPU. Dr. Crider offered his unique sense of humor to his students (some of us still enjoy it as we read the adventures of Sheriff Dan Rhodes who was the brain-child of Dr. Crider and has kept the good doctor busy in retirement) as he taught us all about American Literature or the writing process.

I could go on--Dr. Ray Higgins, Dr. Bill Tillman, Dr. David Garland--but you get the picture.

Teachers are not in it for the money--if they were, they'd do something else. But aren't we glad they do what they do. For our own educations and that of our children, teachers are a must.

If you haven't seen the FB pass-it-on take a look:

Teachers' hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year. It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do - babysit! We can get that for less than minimum wage.That's right. Let's give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. T......hat would be $19.50 a day (...7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and planning-- that equals 6 1/2 hours). Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to babysit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day? 30? So that's $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day. However, remember they only work 180 days a year. I am not going to pay them for any vacations. That's $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master's degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year. Wait a minute... The average teacher's salary (nation wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour per student--a very inexpensive babysitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!