i like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework - lily tomlin

I think we always need teachers, no matter where we are in life, and Ann Patchett does too. She talks about this in her little commencement speech book, What Now?. She thought she had written a great speech and then asked one of her old teachers to read it..he told her it wouldn't work, and she needed to do it over again.

"This was not a situation that called for a rewrite. It was time to let the whole thing go gentle into that good night. I sat on my couch for a long time and stared out the window. I had no interest in starting over again, but there are some people we grant the role of oracle in our lives and when they speak - rarely, gravely - we are well-advised to listen. When I had written my new speech (a shorter version of this book), I did not send it back to Allan. I didn't need to. After all, I am a good student. I had done everything he told me."

(page 90)