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The power of a kind word
Apr. 9th, 2013 12:13 pmI was grading essays outside Starbucks when a woman came up to me and said, "Thank you for being a teacher and taking the time to comment on papers." This almost brought tears to my eyes.
At a time when I'm looking at a high likelihood of losing one of my two jobs (the convenient one) after this term due to budget cutbacks and I'm one term with no class away from losing health insurance, when I get low pay and large classes, in a culture that doesn't bother to even include the humanities (including writing) in its "STEM" educational goals, hearing these words of appreciation moved me deeply. I told her so!
A few minutes later, she stopped by my table again and gave me a Starbucks gift card to show her thanks for my work. I was speechless. Thank you, lady I will probably never see again! And I'm glad I got a chance to say thank you and see your smile right then and there.
At a time when I'm looking at a high likelihood of losing one of my two jobs (the convenient one) after this term due to budget cutbacks and I'm one term with no class away from losing health insurance, when I get low pay and large classes, in a culture that doesn't bother to even include the humanities (including writing) in its "STEM" educational goals, hearing these words of appreciation moved me deeply. I told her so!
A few minutes later, she stopped by my table again and gave me a Starbucks gift card to show her thanks for my work. I was speechless. Thank you, lady I will probably never see again! And I'm glad I got a chance to say thank you and see your smile right then and there.
