"I should introduce you to her. She also wants to...you know...save the world. " Colin

I don’t really want to save the world, but kids get under your skin and make you want to love them fiercely. I’ve missed being in the classroom this week, and reading about Gonzaga’s junior guard Jeremy Pargo today made me tear up. Withers quotes one of Pargo'sformer teachers, Stella Evans: “I've been teaching since '73," she says. "It took me awhile to realize, you can't save 100 percent, but damn if I don't try."

Evans’ comment reminded me of Ms. Williams, who has been teaching at Patterson High School, in Baltimore, Maryland, for her entire teaching career. She’s taught kids of kids she taught twenty years ago. Ms. Williams didn’t really pay attention to me, the new white teacher, until one of my kids who also took her algebra class left his class copy of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in her room one day. She brought it to my classroom and said “One of your students left this in my room. What else you teaching?”

This started a relationship with one of the most influential, caring, and knowledgeable teachers I’ve yet to meet. Ms. Williams always said you can’t save them all, but you can teach the best you can with what you’ve got. When I would get discouraged, she’d tell me to do whatever I needed to do to be ready to teach the next day. Ms. Williams was a constant. She was always after school late, working in her room, and always wanting to learn new strategies to teach more effectively. She cared about her kids, and they knew it from day one – she wasn’t expecting anything but the best from her students. Her example showed me much of what it means to be a good teacher. I’m thankful for her and all teachers like her who show up fully present day in and day out, making sure kids get what they need, academically or otherwise.


(On a side note, some of Wither’s thoughts raised a couple flags around race. Made me think about William Rhoden’s analysis of black athletes in Forty Million Dollar Slaves, which is a pretty fascinating take on the status of black athletes in the U.S.)