Today is Teacher Appreciation Day and I want to give a special shout out to all those who have dedicated their lives to teaching our nations greatest resource- our children.
Thank you for giving not only instructions but even more importantly; sympathy, caring, encouragement, hope, and inspiration
Thank you for making stumbling blocks into stepping-stones
Thank you for rising above the pressure to make test scores the greatest measure of success, but also remembering that each child is a human being with cares and fears, joys and sorrows, hopes and dreams
Thank you to these special people whose influence lives on through the ages in the lives of the children they have taught
This poem says it so eloquently. I don’t know who wrote it but I found it when I was looking for something to give one of my former teachers upon her retirement.
The Two Temples
A builder built a temple,
He wrought it with grace and skill;
Pillars and walls, and arches-
All fashioned to work his will.
And men said they saw its beauty,
It shall never know decay;
Great is thy skill, O builder!
Thy fame shall endure for aye.
A teacher built a temple
With loving and infinite care;
Planning each arch with patience,
Laying each stone with prayer.
None praised unceasing efforts,
None knew of the wondrous plan;
But the temple the teacher built
Was unseen by the eye of man.
Gone is the builder’s temple,
Crumbled into dust;
Low lies each stately pillar
Food for the consuming rust.
But the temple the teacher built
Will last while the ages roll;
For the beautiful unseen temple
Was a child’s immortal soul.
