AUG 24, 2018 – We hope this finds you catching your breath and beginning to wind down for the weekend, maybe feeling good about starting to get back into back-to-school mode. And feeling blessed with many reasons to say Thank You.
This was the card my niece Jennifer chose to send to her daughter’s teacher this week, thanking her for being her dedicated self. At the end of Madison’s first day of kindergarten, her proud parents had received an email that read, “I just wanted to let you know that Madison had a great day today. She was a great listener and very kind. ~ Miss Tate.”
A “so happy!” Jennifer forwarded me the e, along with this pic of Madison, as I was heading for the community pool. Swimming along I thought, wow, it was only a few weeks ago that Madison’s mom & dad and I were tossing her like a little giggling beanbag between us here in the pool, and now there she is a big girl bound for her first day of school!
I was feeling so pleased for my grandniece that she has a teacher who is such a considerate human being. I mean, I write for a living and yet cannot imagine having the heart and energy to personalize such a note 20 times over, especially having been responsible for the well-being of boisterous five-year-olds all day.
Just then, I locked eyes with the man walking laps in the next lane. Well. We walked and he talked for the next hour. :) It turns out that Stanley Flax had taught at Syracuse, and more recently at St. Thomas University, until retiring a few years ago. I swear, I had not mentioned that I was a card publisher when Stan just up and said, “I’ve held on to many cards and letters of appreciation I’ve received from students over the years.”
“It was always surprising to receive one,” Stan chuckled, “because I was not your Mr. Nice Guy! When students complained about my making them go back and do something over again, I’d say, ‘Caring doesn’t mean coddling!’ My job was to prepare these young people to go do well in the world.
“Not too long ago,” Stan remembered fondly, “I received an email from a man that I taught back in 1986! He wrote that he’d tracked me down to say, ‘I am a professor now, too, and wanted you to know that every day I still use knowledge and wisdom that I gained from you.’ I’ll tell you, that message brought tears to these old eyes.”
So how about this: In tribute to Professor Flax and all the good Miss Tates of our world, let’s each choose a teacher (or a few) that we appreciate – it could be one currently not-coddling your kids, or one you yourself had back in 1986. (:-D Order from our Thank You cards between now and Labor Day, and we’ll see that one you choose appears in your cart FREE. Let’s all share in the good feeling that, when we let teachers know they’ve made a difference in our lives, we make a difference in theirs.
~ jodee stevens
founder & chief creative
