This
past Saturday morning, while working at Café on the Park at the Wheaton Public
Library, I saw my freshman English teacher from college. I had recently gone through my old college
files, and I had intentionally looked at my essays and papers from Ms. Hecht’s
English and Composition class. I don’t
have fond memories of her. She was a
nitpicky grader who always kept us a minute after the class was over and
assigned us scores of papers. As I
thumbed through my old papers I was initially nauseous with how bad my writing was,
but as I progressed through a year’s worth of papers I could see growth in my
writing, and my grades climbed slowly from C+'s, B-‘s and B’s to B+’s, A-‘s and even
an A or two. And what I find so interesting
is that my view of Ms. Hecht is so different now that I am teacher who teaches writing. I’m that nitpicky grader! And I’m sure my students get tired from my auspicious
eye that catches every extra space, misplaced comma, split infinitive, and poorly
chosen word. But what I’ve learned from
Ms. Hecht looking back as a teacher, is that I’d rather risk being that
irritatingly picky and potentially unpopular teacher now with the hope that
some will someday thank me in their heart for trying to make them better
writers. So this morning, I reintroduced
myself to Ms. Hecht, who was, unsurprisingly, grading this year’s batch of
English students, and I thanked her for teaching me how to write. And I’m reminded that true education is
committed to long-term growth that many of us teachers will never see. But the seeds are planted, and God sees the
growth and brings about the harvest. Thanks be to God!
