TeacherA Letter To
My First Grade Parents

 

 

When I am introduced as a teacher, I am usually asked what I teach. When I say "First Grade," I generally hear a flat "Oh!" I am never certain whether it is an expression of pity, sympathy, or plain disinterest.  I always wish I had the time to say to them:

 
"Yes, I teach first grade.  . . .
  • Where else could I wear the same old dress day after day and be told each time that my dress is pretty?
  • Where else would a handsome young man put his arms around me and ask, "Do you know that I love you?"
  • Where else could I ever tie so many bows, shoe laces, and hats?
  • Where else could I eat a soiled piece of candy from a grimy little hand and not become deathly ill? 
    ( I have to eat it because he watches to see that I DO eat it!)
  • Where else could I have the privilege of wiggling loose teeth and receive the promise that I could share half of the loot from the fairy?
  • Where else would the future look as bright as it does amid an energetic group to whom nothing is impossible?
  • Where else could I forget my own aches and pains because of so many cut fingers, scratched knees, bumped heads, and broken hearts that need care?
  • Where else could I guide the first letter formation of a chubby little hand and think that someday it might write a book or an important document?
  •   Where else would my mind have stayed so young as with a group whose attention span is so short that I must always keep a "bag of tricks" up my sleeve?
  • Where else could I feel so close to my Maker as I do each year, because of something I have done? 
    -     taught little children to read!