Ok so I’ve sorta been negative toward my past teacher experiences. Now for a positive teacher experience. My favorite teacher. My favorite teacher was Mrs. Britnell, my 4th grade teacher. What set her apart from the other teachers is that she truly loved her students and wanted the absolute best for them. Even before this whole prayer in public schools controversy, she was regularly leading our class in morning devotionals at school (this was a public school). This went against the grain, but it was so fundamental in my emerging faith during those vital years. She had inspirational posters around the wall. Each morning we choose a poster and she would give a short devotional about it. Then she was lead us in a prayer. I remember always praying for an absent student of ours. This student was scheduled to be in our class at the beginning of the year, but had to stay homebound for all of the year due to a bad motorcycle accident. We prayed everyday for that kid. And he was able to return to school the following year.
What was great about the class itself is that not only did I have a great teacher, I also had 2 friends of mine who were in there. We remain good friends to this day. And that was 19 years ago.
Mrs. Britnell didn’t like the annual academic awards day celebration because she felt like it was not good for the kids who didn’t get any awards. I would tend to agree with her. While the handful of us were getting all of the awards, the rest of the class was left out. So after the awards program…back in the classroom, she gave all of her students awards so that none of us were left out.
I went back to see her a few years ago. She was at a new school as a guidance counselor. She said she had to get out of the classroom because it was just too stressful. I’m pretty sure she is retired now.