Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

I have written a lot about grit and delayed gratification, and for the most part, those ideals have been directed toward student motivation and getting the children that we teach to work a little harder each day. During Teacher Appreciation Week it would be easy for me to write a "thank you" for the work that teachers do, but instead I'm going to write about grit and delayed gratification again. This time, it's not about the work, but about the reward. Educators need to do a better job of focusing on the fruits of our labor instead of the trials and tribulations we face along the way. Focusing on the successes of our efforts provides a model to go by for future efforts and fuels our passion to continue to do more.

This week I encountered many things to write about and I could see this post getting longer and longer in my head. Instead of berating you with so many of the different examples I saw, I'll focus on just two. The first example of a long term reward comes from a little practice I picked up from several of you. I decided a few years ago when I received a thank you letter from a student at Greene Central for the help that I had given him, that I was capable of doing the same as an adult. Each year I try to track down a former teacher and thank them. This year I chose my sophomore English teacher. Mrs. Dail was one of those teachers that taught me more about life and how to be a great person than anything I remember about subject/verb agreement or the plot of a novel we read. She continued to help me beyond the year I spent in her classroom and was personally responsible for me attending college and becoming a teacher. I wrote her an email to say thanks and did not receive a reply for several days. When she replied, she explained how she simply did not know how to respond. My thanks was two decades removed from her classroom, but the timing was right for her. Twenty years later, she had finally received the recognition that was due for her efforts for one kid.

My second example was two years removed of my efforts. Last night I had the privilege of making good on a promise that I made, and I attended the commencement ceremony of a former student of mine that graduated from nursing school. At that time I posted a blog about her and how her program was attempting to remove her due to her immigration status. Several of us that knew her fought long and hard for several weeks to keep her in school and were successful. Beyond that, we supported her in school and hours of encouragement and prayer went her way. Last night she was pinned as a nurse and it was probably the most satisfying thing in my career to date. She will begin work this summer at Vidant hospital. We won.

Many of you that have been teaching for a few years have stories similar to mine. Those of you well into your career probably have dozens of examples. At the end of Teacher Appreciation Week, I want to ask you to focus on those examples of how your own grit has produced success beyond your classroom. To those of you early in your career, please know that your efforts will produce quality results, sometimes it just takes years to see the full impact. Thank you all for what you do and I hope that you can take time to focus on your achievements.