A Cup of Comfort for Teachers: Heartwarming Stories of People Who Mentor, Motivate, and Inspire (Cup of Comfort Series)
- Book Review,
by Colleen Sell (Editor)
Book Description
Virtually everyone can recall a special teacher, coach, or mentor who opened his or her eyes to a new outlook on life. Teachers guide us to read, write, imagine, explore, and understand; they teach us to count, and they teach us what counts in life. Teachers touch millions of young lives every day with their dedication, passion, and generosity. A Cup of Comfort for Teachers offers parents, students, and anyone with a treasured mentor a way to repay our devoted educators. The spectacular success of A Cup of Comfort for Mothers & Daughters on Mother’s Day and A Cup of Comfort for Christmas during the holidays exemplifies the power of this special brand to provide the perfect "thank you" to the people who deserve it most. A Cup of Comfort for Teachers is the ideal reward for teachers, featuring such remarkable stories as: ·When a classroom computer goes missing, a disheartened inner-city teacher gets an unexpected gift—and boost—from her students ·A sign language interpreter and music tutor helps a determined deaf woman pass a college piano course and play her first song—solo! ·A dedicated and successful teacher meets her greatest challenge: Her own son refuses to learn to read ·Ordinary "show and tell" unexpectedly teaches a new kindergarten teacher a valuable lesson about education ·A teacher coaxes an illiterate thirteen-year-old street urchin in Africa into an adult-education classroom, opening the door to a better future Every teacher needs a lift from time to time and a token of recognition for the powerful positive influence they have on their students. A Cup of Comfort for Teachers is the perfect gift for these dedicated professionals.
Excerpted from A Cup of Comfort for Teachers: Heartwarming Stories of People Who Mentor, Motivate, and Inspire (Cup of Comfort Series) by Colleen Sell. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Excerpt from "Because It Matters" by Greg Beatty Mr. King gave us the first test, and being grade-driven honors students, we were anxious to see who had gotten the highest score. My friend, Paul Larick, grinned as Mr. King began. "Mr. Larick, you earned the highest grade on the test." Paul’s smile vanished as Mr. King continued. "You earned a D. . . . The rest of you earned a D-minus or below." "But—" someone objected. "That’s not fair!" someone else cried. "You tested us on things we hadn’t studied," a third person tried. I was too stunned to speak. "The work you submitted," Mr. King said softly, "was not honors quality." Mr. King was not unfair. He threw out all the grades for the first test. He was not unkind. He never discussed grades publicly again. He was not without a sense of humor. And he was not, finally, ever unclear about his standards, and that was a shock to us. We were so used to getting A’s as a matter of course that we tried every strategy in the book. "You graded my paper down for grammar and spelling. This isn’t English class," one of us would whine. Mr. King would say, "If you apply your skills only in the classes in which they are studied, what good are they?" I remember trying a similar tactic. "What do you mean my thesis isn’t supported? Isn’t my idea original?" Unblinking eyes gazed at me through a heavy pair of glasses. "Those two points are not, as I trust you know, related. Your idea is quite original. Daring, even. Now you need to support it." Bitter, I tried again. "It would have been good enough in honors English." "Well, it’s not good enough here." Mr. King spoke quietly, to keep the matter private. My answer was louder, an attempt to enlist the entire class behind me. "Well, why isn’t it good enough?" "Because the subject matter is important," he said. "Because it is desperately important for you to learn your country’s history—not just the names and dates, but the laws and the debates behind the laws, their economic implications, and what the period perspectives were. Because it is desperately important for all of you to be able to form a cogent, well-supported argument that you deliver in clear, grammatically correct prose." I didn’t become a teacher until years later, and I didn’t realize how much Mr. King had influenced me until a student asked me a question late one semester. "Why are we doing more work in this class than they’re doing in other freshmen English classes?" "Because it matters," I said.
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