Great Teachers Matter

Great teachers connect with their students and see the opportunity for excellence in each. Growing up in my home, we were not sitting around the dinner table talking about our dreams and hopes—never mind the all-important “how and why” parts of achieving dreams and hopes. We were just trying to survive as a family. My high school English teacher, Ms. Mary Alice Weber, connected with me; she saw me. She saw the potential for a brighter future. She saw and cultivated within me that which I didn’t know existed. She helped create a vision of a life that I never thought possible. It is difficult to dream bigger than your experiences, but with the help of my teacher, I created a vision for a life better and more successful than what I was living.

While my story of vision creation is unique to me, it is not a unique aspect of teachers’ work. Teachers help create visions for countless students year after year—hundreds or thousands in a career. These all-important educators/mentors help support the family unit and the community at large. They provide critical knowledge and skills and support to stretch and grow hungry minds searching for their future.

For most kids, teachers provide part of the essential foundation for life. Without them the country could not progress at the pace that it does. Teachers don’t just matter; they matter significantly to the building of solid communities and the country

— Pam Sloan