One of the psychic rewards of teaching is discovering that students remember you as the person who changed their life. They probably never knew the name of the superintendent, forgot the name of the mayor and the governor, but they never forgot that one extraordinary teacher.
This recently happened to a sixth-grade teacher in Arizona. She wrote an encouraging note to one of her students and told the student to invite her to her graduation from Harvard. Sixth grade!
Twenty one years later, that student invited teacher Judith Toensing to Harvard to see her receive a doctorate of public health.
“Judith Toensing didn’t just teach her students, she inspired them.
“A sixth-grade teacher from Yuma, Arizona, Toensing made a strong impact on one of her students 21 years ago.
“At the end of the school year in 1997, Mrs. Toensing, wrote a note on the student’s report card: “It has been a joy to have you in class. Keep up the good work! Invite me to your Harvard graduation!.”
“This week, the student, Christin Gilmer graduated from Harvard as a doctor of public health.”
Gilmer saved her teacher’s note all these years. She invited her teacher to the graduation ceremony.
“Dean Michelle Williams thanked Toensing — and all public school teachers — for the “immeasurably important” work they do.
“You don’t just teach young people. You inspire them, and you propel them along a path of fulfillment and service to others. Your work is what makes our work possible,” Dean Williams said.”
Teachers matter.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sweet, and true.
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Beauriful! Heartening…
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It is a lovely and rewarding feeling when students remember you and thank you for your efforts. This teacher should be proud of her contribution to this student’s life. Teachers help build a better tomorrow for so many young people.
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🌈 More than terrific. Public School Teachers MATTER!
Been saying this forever and forever. I ❤️ Public School Teachers.
Most of my friends are Public School Teachers.
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When delivering speeches, Broad Academy Graduate Superintendents trot out a similar, but bogus inspirational teacher story that never happened. It originated in a work of fiction. (The teacher-author angrily debunks those who present it as real whenever it’s brought to her attention.)
I’m assuming all the Broadies acquired this trick in one of the Broad Academy classes on …
“How to Manipulate the Masses While Speaking in Public Using Bullsh— Inspirational Stories 101″ or some similar class or module.
Here’s Broadie Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana getting busted on using this story — audience in tears yadda-yadda-yadda …
… real tears for a fake story:
https://pilotonline.com/news/local/education/article_0ec71a80-7b5c-51bf-bf46-c940186c34d7.html
And now we have this twist: ABOVE is a similar — though not identical, of course — story that indeed just happened for real.
Now, the true story doesn’t have the fake story’s same extreme character arc and extreme-delinquent-to-extreme-college-success transformation, nor does it have such maudlin, improbable details such as the teacher standing in for the student’s dead mother at student’s wedding (???!!) contained in the phony tale.
That’s said, this true story (the subject of this thread) is touching nonetheless, as a teacher writes in a 12 year-old’s report card, asking her to “invite me to your Harvard graduation.”
The student keeps this, using it to inspire her … and then 21 years later, she’s getting her PhD at her … yes … Harvard graduation, where she … yes … invites the teacher who inscribed the report card, shows it to her … and …
… real tears for a real story.
And it all happened in traditional public schools!! Can you believe that?
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Great story! I am a retired teacher and the older I got the more I want to help students.
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Me, too–I do so as an advocate for special ed.,public schools, helping parents opt out & working for/with our local & state retired teachers assn. (to ensure that teachers receive the pensions they paid into all their working lives). & thanks to some of the teachers who inspired me to teach: 4th Grade, Mrs. Sperling; 6th Grade: Mr. Fishman; 7th Grade Social Studies: Mr. Thomas O’Brien, who is STILL going strong {ageless! looks as good now as he did in 1964!} & had a school building wing named after him!) 8th Grade Social Studies: Mr. John McArdle (o.b.m.)*; H.S. Jr. Year English: Mr. John Duffy (o.b.m.), who, when I saw him at a restaurant when w/my parents, told them what a wonderful student I was, it was a pleasure to have me in his class & that I was going to do great things one day
(imagine how proud my parents were, & how great it made a 16-year-old feel).
I am officially ferklempt (Yiddish).
What a wonderful story proving that,yes, there are happy endings.
*o.b.m.: of Blessed Memory
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The post about the teacher whose student graduated from Harvard gave me goosebumps! Thanks for sharing.
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My Aunt Mary taught English at a High School on Staten Island for 30 years and then moved to Poland then Switzerland with her husband. After he died, I talked her into moving to Massachusetts to live near me. One of her students from the Staten Island high school tracked her down to my house and took her out to see Hamlet! She has been my role model.
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I tracked down my high school English teacher from Houston about 35 years after graduation. She was in an assisted living facility in South Carolina. I dont know who was happier—her or me.
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Teachers do touch lives. Many teachers may not make such a remarkable impact on their students but often students do not forget teaches. It may be a kind act, or going to the home of the student, but the words and actions of teachers often reach into the child’s mind.
It is great to see how this teacher words touch her student. The author of ‘The Death and Life of the Great American School System’ speaks respectfully of one Ms. Ratliff and how that teacher affected her and the students she taught.
These people, leave indelible impressions on our lives.
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Beautiful.
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Would his story have been as tear-inducing had the student thanked the teacher for helping her organize a family budget? I think not, and therein lies the problem of the highly educated when it comes to school reform.
Educators often see further education at notable institutions as the needed result of a good curriculum and sound policy. But I claim education is not for the student. Rather, it is for their children. Let me explain.
Stories abound of rags to riches advancement in America. It is the hallmark of both classical liberalism and modern conservatism that great individuals is what we are trying to produce. We all stand misty-eyed while somebody else sings the national anthem in a huge venue. But the culture that is truly great lifts all to a level of social responsibility that finds most people engaged in raising good kids who will value their relationship to others more than their own pocketbook. It’s a Wonderful Life is an honored film in the American culture precisely because it carries the message that we have an obligation to each other, not just to ourselves.
All of which brings us to who we teach as children. I tell my students each year that I am not about them. They are about themselves. They must decide whether they want to go medical field, mechanical, or whatever. What I am trying to do is to introduce them to ideas they have never heard of, creating a great pool of parents who support learning in general. I want my students to have kids who come home excited about Egypt to a parent who also finds Egypt exciting. I want my students to have an experience with Geometry (in a former capacity, I taught this) such that their children will find support for their own interest in it.
This way, those who find that their child has a particular gift will recognize it and nurture it. This is the seed of future generations, that the see potential in their children. Whether that potential is for electrical engineers or philosophers is not my business as a teacher.
Of course, I get really excited when an individual shows intellectual promise. I celebrate with them the successes they are feeling as they get started in life. Most students at my school do not end up at Harvard. Any student at our school scoring high enough on the entrance exams has to compete with students coming from institutions with a bigger reputation. But I still get excited with them when they find success (usually without debt) in institutions with les luster to the name. And when they return and thank me, it makes me feel good. But remember, in school, it’s all about the children.
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Well said.
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YEP!
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