See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Susan B. Anthony Story.
Life Lesson #96 – Pay Attention and Be Diligent.
Mrs. Reeves had been a teacher for a long, long time. This was going to be her last year to teach because she was finally retiring. Everybody loved Mrs. Reeves and wanted to be in her class. But one day, some boys in the back of the room were being disrespectful and not paying attention to her teaching. Mrs. Reeves was in the process of explaining a math problem when the disruptions began so she stopped and began speaking to the students as though she were speaking to her own grandchildren.
“Think about how you would feel,” she said in a kind voice, “if you had worked very hard to learn something, and as you were trying to teach it, someone began acting like you’re acting.” The class got really quiet now.
“You know,” she said, “teachers were once students, too. They go to school for twelve years, and then they go to college for four and sometime five more years, and then when they become teachers, they still keep learning always so they can be good teachers. Then after they’ve put all that work into it, and students don’t listen, it’s really hard to take sometimes. Teachers can get their feelings hurt, too,” she said.
Mrs. Reeves went on to say that hurting a teacher’s feelings by not paying attention and by doing things to distract others could be just very hurtful behavior.
Well, that’s all that had to be said. Those boys in the back got the message. They decided right then to start working with the teacher to HELP her instead of working against the teacher to hurt her. That day they decided to become HEROES instead!
– Jim Lord