essay about the teacher who changed my life

The teachers who inspired us, and even changed the trajectories of our lives

Rita Pierson leads off TED Talks Education, our first televised event, which will air on PBS on May 7. Photo: Ryan Lash

Rita Pierson is the kind of teacher you wish you had. An educator for 40 years, she is funny, sharp and simply has a way with words — so much so that today’s talk feels a bit like a sermon.

“I have had classes so low, so academically deficient that I cried. I wondered, ‘How am I going to take this group in nine months from where they are to where they need to be?” says Pierson, in this amazing talk . “I came up with a bright idea … I gave them a saying: ‘I am somebody. I was somebody when I came and I’ll be a better somebody when I leave. I am powerful and I am strong. I deserve the education that I get here’ … You say it long enough, it starts to be a part of you.”

Pierson’s talk will open our first-ever television special, TED Talks Education, which airs Tuesday, May 7 at 10/9c on PBS. It will be an exhilarating night, featuring talks from educators and innovators with bold ideas, plus performances from host John Legend. Set your DVRs and read lots more here »

In honor of Rita Pierson and TED Talks Education, I asked the TED staff: who is that one teacher who just really, truly influenced you?

“The teacher who changed my life was, serendipitously, my English teacher for kindergarten, 7th grade and senior year of high school. Ms. Barbato taught me how to write eloquently (I hope!), and she had this unexplained faith in me that really galvanized me as a student. What she taught me stuck with me through college and beyond.” — Olivier Sherman, Distribution Coordinator

“Mr. Eric Yang was only in his mid-twenties when I had him as my AP government teacher, but he was unforgettable. He was the first teacher I had who made keeping up with current events mandatory, forcing us to read news sources on our own time and not just from the textbook. He exuded discipline, and that was contagious.” — Thu-Huong Ha , Editorial Projects Specialist

“Mrs. Bailey was my English teacher. I loved her. I was the younger sister of an already very successful big sister, and that was a cloud over my head too. She held my hand and brought me into the sun with her love of the English language. She recommended books just to me, she made me feel special and I just couldn’t get enough of her. I went on a school trip to Amsterdam with her and she brought her husband, who was an artist. She changed my life.” — Juliet Blake , TED TV (who executive produced TED Talks Education)

“Mrs. Mendelson, my 8th-grade English teacher. This was my first year living in the U.S. I think she set the stage for future learning and she’s the main reason I have such good English right now, both written and spoken. So, thank you, Mrs. Mendelson.”  — Ruben Marcos, intern

“I still recall how awesome my 6th-grade teacher, Mr. Fawess, was. Middle school in general is basically Hades. I was extremely small, super nerdy, and had a unibrow, asthma and glasses — plus I left school once a week to take classes at the local high school. I got picked on a lot. Mr. Fawess came up with all these ways to take my mind off that — he talked to me about bullying and how to let things roll off your shoulder and gave me books I could read outside of class. He got me thinking about college early and what kinds of subjects I was most interested in. I consider myself lucky to have had such an inspiring teacher. If only he had discouraged me from dressing up as the skunk in our annual school play.” — Amanda Ellis , TEDx Projects Coordinator

“Robert Baldwin’s class ‘Essay and Inquiry.’ Every day: Walk into class. Sit down. Look at the handout on every desk. Read it. Start writing. Class ends — stop writing. Every day. Except Wednesday, when we’d put the desks in a circle and everyone would read something they’d written. The prompts were everything from simple questions like, “What’s your favorite memory of trees?” to readings from Rachel Carson or W.B. Yeats or Orson Welles. It was a whirlwind of ideas, and the constant writing forced us to wrestle with them, and (tritely but correctly) ourselves. It was like a boot camp in thinking. People I know who took, and loved, that class went on to some of the most amazing careers. Every time we get together, we gush about the quiet, unassuming, force of nature that was Mr. Baldwin. He would have hated that last sentence, because the metaphor is strained. But he also taught us to ignore authority, so I’m writing it anyway.” — Ben Lillie , Writer/Editor

“Mrs. Lewis, my 5th-grade teacher, read to us every week. She made us put our heads on the desk and close our eyes and then read wonderful stories to us: The Golden Pine Cone , The Diamond Feather .. . It made our imaginations come alive.” — Janet McCartney , Director of Events

“My junior high school science teacher, Dr. Ernie Roy, with his outsized laugh and booming voice, was one of my very favorite teachers. He demonstrated to us how important we were to him by making what were obviously personal sacrifices on our behalf: when the lab needed equipment, we knew he had purchased some of it on his own; when we couldn’t get a bus for a field trip, he took a few of us in his own car (something which could have gotten him into quite a bit of trouble); and when a big science fair deadline loomed large, he opened the lab every weekend to help us with our experiments. At a point in my life when I didn’t have a lot of guidance or positive role models, he taught me a lot more than science; he taught me, by example, the power of sacrifice, discipline and self-respect.” — Michael McWatters , UX Architect

“Dr. Heller, my 10th-grade social studies teacher, taught me that passion is the key to learning. I had never met anyone from kindergarten to 10th grade that matched his raw passion for the  meaning  behind historical events, and it was so contagious.” — Deron Triff , Director of Distribution

“Rene Arcilla, a professor of Educational Philosophy at NYU, changed the way I think.  Prior to that class, I hadn’t truly been challenged about what *I* actually thought — much of my educational life was about regurgitating answers. Rene was the first teacher who asked me questions that he/we didn’t know the answers to. Realizing that I had to actually provide the answers from within myself, and not look to an outside source, was very difficult at first. It was a muscle I had to build. I owe a lot of who I am today — and even this job — to the introspective, critical and philosophical thinking I learned from Rene’s classes.” — Susan Zimmerman , Executive Assistant to the Curator

“Mr. Downey — 7th- and 8th-grade Humanities. Still the hardest class I’ve ever taken!  I’d credit Mr. Downey with helping me think more expansively about the world. Right before 8th-grade graduation, he showed us Dead Poets Society , and on the final day of class we all agreed to stand on our desks and recite ‘O Captain, my captain.’  It was all very dramatic and I think there were tears.” — Jennifer Gilhooley, Partnership Development

“I took my first painting class my sophomore year of high school and fell in love with it. My teacher, Ms. Bowen, told me I could use the art studio whenever I wanted to, and gave me access to all kinds of new paints and canvasses. I spent almost every lunch period there for a few years, and regularly stayed in the studio after school ended. One day, Ms. Bowen told me that a parent of a student I had painted expressed interest in buying the painting of her daughter. After that first sale, I painted portraits of kids in my school on a commission basis, and continued to do so for the remainder of my high school experience. Thanks to Ms. Bowen’s mentorship, I felt empowered to try to make money from something I was passionate about and loved to do.  Here  is one of the paintings.” — Cloe Shasha , TED Projects Coordinator

“I had a chemistry teacher, Mr. Sampson, who used to meet me at school an hour before it started to tutor me when the material wasn’t clicking. That was the first class I had ever really struggled with, and he made this investment to help me get through the material — but more importantly learn that I could teach myself anything.”  —Stephanie Kent, Special Projects

“On the first day of my Elementary Italian Immersion class, I asked to be excused to use the restroom in English. Professor Agostini kept speaking rapidly in Italian as I squirmed in my seat. Since she seemed unclear about my request, I asked her again to no avail. Finally, I flipped through my brand-new Italian-English dictionary and discovered the words, ‘ Posso usare il bagno per favore .’ Suddenly, she flashed me a smile, handed me the key, told me where to go in  Italian , and pointed to my dictionary so I could learn how to follow her directions. Even though I only studied with her for one semester, I will never forget that I emerged from her class knowing intermediate-level Italian.” — Jamia Wilson, TED Prize Storyteller

“My history teacher in high school, Mr. Cook, challenged us to think hard about what happened in the past and directly related it to what was happening around us. He gave us ways to try and predict what could happen in the future. He was the first person to make me take ownership of what it meant to be a citizen and the social responsibility that came with that. Because he taught ‘World History’ rather than a regionally specific class, we learned extensively about other countries, and I am convinced he is the reason that I went abroad to Ghana in college and I am now still an avid traveler today.” — Samantha Kelly, Fellows Group

“The professor who taught me Intro to Women and Gender Studies my sophomore year of college completely changed my framework for thinking about human relationships within a hierarchy. She brought coffee and tea to class for us every morning to congratulate us for being so dedicated to learning as to choose an 8:30 a.m. class. When I emailed her to say I’d be out sick, she sent me a get-well e-card. And when, in a fit of undergraduate irresponsibility, I simply failed to do an assignment, she wasn’t the least bit mad — instead, I received a phone call from her a week after the end of the semester informing me that, because I’d done such good work, she couldn’t bear to give me the B+ I numerically deserved. It was incredible to see how fully she lived the subject she taught; the philosophy of compassion and equality.” — Morton Bast , Editorial Assistant

“My high school photography teacher, Susan Now. I’m convinced that the support I got from Susan got me through high school. Two years later, when I was freaked out about transferring colleges, I, without hesitation, called her for advice. She made me feel comfortable and challenged me to speak up and be confident with expressing myself as a student. So valuable!” — Ella Saunders-Crivello, Partnerships Coordinator

“Cliff Simon, one of my college professors, taught me that wisdom is the greatest pursuit, our skills and passions are transferable, and that fear will only ever always hold us back.  To this day, he’s a great mentor.  We’re now great friends, and I even officiated his wedding ceremony.” — Jordan Reeves, TED-Ed Community Manager

“My 10th-grade biology teacher spoke and interacted with me like I was a grown-up individual and not one of a batch of ‘kids.’ He made us all fascinated with the subjects he taught because he spoke to us not at us. I always worked hard to match that capacity that he saw in me. He was only in his 50s when, a few years after I graduated, he died suddenly of a heart attack. Lots of sad former students.” — Ladan Wise , Product Development Manager

“Stephen O’Leary, my professor and mentor at the University of Southern California, showed me that the quality of my thinking could be directly traced to the quality of the authors I referenced in my bibliography. This realization motivated me to both seek and challenge everything I have read ever since. This habit likely played a part in me finding myself so passionate about being a part of TED.” — Sarah Shewey , TEDActive Program Producer

“My high school art teacher was equal parts smart and silly, and always insightful. Mr. Miller showed a bunch of restless seniors that art class wasn’t just about memorizing which painters influenced which periods. Instead, he taught us that art was — at its core — an exciting way to touch both the head and the heart. Mr. Miller took our  class to the Met in New York one warm spring afternoon, a trip I’ll never forget. Great art, he told us, was about great ideas, and not simply the pleasing arrangement of color, shape and form. Thank you, Russ Miller.” — Jim Daly, TED Books 

“Mrs. Presley, my 1st-grade teacher, advanced my reading skills to full-on chapter book independence … and for that I’ll be forever grateful! But the most valuable gift she gave me was self-esteem. At my school, we’d bring a brown bag lunch with our name written on the bag. I always wanted a middle name like the other kids, and this daily ritual made me feel the lack. I must have let my mom know, because she started to write middle names on my bag. At first it started: ‘Marla Ruby Mitchnick.’ Then ‘Marla Ruby Diamond Mitchnick,’ and then ‘Marla Ruby Diamond Violet Mitchnick,’ and so on. Mrs. Presley never skipped a single syllable — she just read it straight through, and I felt like a beloved and fortunate person with a beautiful name, surrounded by wonderful friends.” — Marla Mitchnick , Film + Video Editor

“I signed up for Journalism 1 in high school having no idea what I was getting myself into. Marcie Pachino ran a rigorous course on the joys of telling other people’s stories and on the extreme responsibility that comes with reporting news that might otherwise go unheard. She was kind and inspiring, but wouldn’t hesitate to give you an edit of an article that simply read ‘Ugh’ in big red letters. The key: you always knew she was right. I went on to become a journalist professionally and, in all my years of writing, I’ve never encountered a more demanding editor.” — Kate Torgovnick, Writer (the author of this post)

“Professor Stephen Commins completely changed my  learning experience at UCLA. He pushed the boundaries of what I thought I could accomplish as an undergrad, and having him as my research professor improved my quality of education tenfold. I’ll never forget in my last lecture with him, he left our class with this piece of advice: to work on poverty domestically before attempting to help those abroad, because you aren’t truly a development professional until you have done both.” — Chiara Baldanza, Coordinator

“My high school English teacher Veronica Stephenson went above and beyond to allow me the opportunity to dive into theater and acting in a very underfunded arts community. She saw passion in me, and engaged it by spending a lot of her own time and effort to help me pursue something I loved. I learned so much from her and got more personalized experience than I probably would have from a more arts-focused curriculum due solely to her faith in me.” —Emilie Soffe, Office Coordinator

Now it’s your turn. Who is the teacher who most inspired you? Please share in your comments.

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Short Story Reviews

The Teacher Who Changed My Life by Nicholas Gage

In The Teacher Who Changed My Life by Nicholas Gage we have the theme of struggle, conflict, freedom, hostility, inspiration, hard work, acceptance and pride. Narrated in the first person by Gage himself the reader realizes from the beginning of the story that Gage may be exploring the theme of struggle. Gage and his siblings have left Greece to live with their father in America. Greece has become a place of conflict for Gage and his mother has been killed by Communists in 19849. What is interesting about Gage’s struggle is the fact he would spend many years trying to find those who were responsible for his mother’s death. Such was the conflict that Gage felt internally he wanted to honour his mother and those who lost their lives through the Communists.

It my also be significant that it takes Gage some time to warm to his father and if anything he blames his father for not rescuing his mother as well. The path to freedom for Gage was the journey to America however he has to work hard while in school in America. At first Gage is put in a classroom for children with special needs as he does not have any English. Today this would not happen and there would be classes in English language. What is also interesting is the fact that it takes Gage only a few years to enter the mainstream in school. This is important as it suggests that Gage was able to adapt to the circumstances he found himself in. Tough he still misses his mother he is able to make progress which suggests that Gage is resilient.

The hard work that Marjorie Hurd puts Gage through, along with the other students, at the Newspaper Club may also be significant as it highlights to others (the reader being one) that through hard work a person can get satisfaction and achieve anything. Gage himself went on to become a journalist and authour thanks to his early introduction to journalism at the Newspaper Club. It is as though Ms Hurd has inspired Gage to be the best that he can be. Despite the circumstances he found himself in. The essay that he writes about his escape from Greece is interesting as it shows that Gage has accepted, no matter how hard it is, his circumstances. He has made progress, no matter how painful, in America

The end of the story is important as it highlights the pride that Gage has in his work. As well as his father being proud of him. A relationship that once was ‘prickly’ has become a relationship full of pride. Something Gage discovers on his father’s death when he has the picture of Gage and President Kennedy in his jacket pocket. Despite the passing of time Gage’s father was always proud of his son. A young boy who came to America with nothing but the clothes he had on his back. In many ways Gage writes of the possibilities of achieving the American dream. Gage, though motherless, through hard work has achieved something he may not have achieved in Greece. Ms. Hurd has also played an importantly role in Gage’s life. She encouraged him to be the best that he could be regardless of the circumstances that Gage found himself in.

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Knowing how complex malaria is helps me appreciate how much progress the world has made in fighting it.

Out of My Shell

Remembering Blanche Caffiere, who took me under her wing when I was 9.

Three very strong women—my mother, my maternal grandmother, and Melinda—deserve big credit (or blame, I suppose) for helping me become the man I am today. But Blanche Caffiere, a very kindly librarian and teacher I’ve never written about publicly before, also had a huge influence on me.  

Mrs. Caffiere (pronounced “kaff-ee-AIR”) died in 2006, shortly after reaching her 100 th birthday. Before she passed, I had an opportunity to thank her for the important role she played in my life, stoking my passion for learning at a time when I easily could have gotten turned off by school.

When I first met Mrs. Caffiere, she was the elegant and engaging school librarian at Seattle’s View Ridge Elementary, and I was a timid fourth grader. I was desperately trying to go unnoticed, because I had some big deficits, like atrocious handwriting (experts now call it dysgraphia) and a comically messy desk. And I was trying to hide the fact that I liked to read—something that was cool for girls but not for boys. 

Mrs. Caffiere took me under her wing and helped make it okay for me to be a messy, nerdy boy who was reading lots of books.

She pulled me out of my shell by sharing her love of books. She started by asking questions like, “What do you like to read?” and “What are you interested in?” Then she found me a lot of books—ones that were more complex and challenging than the Tom Swift Jr. science fiction books I was reading at the time. For example, she gave me great biographies she had read. Once I’d read them, she would make the time to discuss them with me. “Did you like it?” she would ask. “Why? What did you learn?” She genuinely listened to what I had to say. Through those book conversations in the library and in the classroom we became good friends.

Teachers generally don’t want to burden their students with extra reading beyond the homework they’ve assigned. But I learned from Mrs. Caffiere that my teachers had so much more knowledge to share. I just needed to ask. Up through high school and beyond, I would often ask my teachers about the books they liked, read those books when I had some free time, and offer my thoughts.

Looking back on it now, there’s no question that my time with Mrs. Caffiere helped spark my interest in libraries (Melinda’s and my first large-scale effort in philanthropy) and my focus on helping every child in America get the benefit of great teachers . I often trace the beginning of our foundation to an article about children in poor countries dying from diseases eliminated long ago in the U.S. But I should give some credit as well to the dedicated librarian and teacher who helped me find my strengths when I was nine years old. It’s remarkable how much power one good person can have in shaping the life of a child. 

This year signaled the start of a new era. Here’s why I believe next year is an opportunity to shape the world’s next chapter for the better.

It’s part of a new approach to teaching America’s least favorite subject.

In the second episode of my new podcast, I sat down with the founder of Khan Academy to talk about how artificial intelligence will transform education.

Washington State Teacher of the Year Dana Miles uses bus schedules, coffee orders, and dinner recipes to teach her students about self-advocacy.

This is my personal blog, where I share about the people I meet, the books I'm reading, and what I'm learning. I hope that you'll join the conversation.

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The teacher who changed my life by nicholas gage.

What was Gage's purpose in writing the essay.

Gage's purpose was to show how Miss Hurd, his seventh grade teacher, influenced his life and encouraged him to pursue his talent by writing about his experiences.

he wrote this essay and his purpose was to say how his teacher marjorie hurd changed his life after she told him to write an essay about what he and his family lived in greece

Purpose of Gage's to write essay

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A teacher changed my life

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To the Teacher Who Changed My Life

Illustration by Robert Neubecker

Neal Tonken taught me English in 10 th grade. He changed my life. He died last week. I don’t remember what he taught me about how to start an essay, but that’s the way he would have started it. 

He was clear and direct in his writing. Our first day of class in 1984 was his first day too. He’d been a lawyer and chucked it all to teach. He brought a bag of bread, a jar of peanut butter, and a jar of jelly. He asked us to describe how to make a sandwich. Then he read our instructions out loud, following along literally, placing the jar on top of the bag of bread. We’d forgotten basic elements like removing the bread from the bag or taking the lids off the jars. 

“Dear John, How nice to hear from you,” starts a letter he wrote me in 1991. “Don’t choose law.” Direct. Clear. My letter that prompted his response was the opposite. It was a mess of perfumery and words stacked on top of each other. If it had been an email, it would have triggered his spam filter. I’d just gotten my first job as a secretary and mentioned in passing I might try to either write or go to law school. His response was advice but also an example.

I’d written that letter to thank him. I learned later that lots of students had done the same.  “My interest in literature and learning started in your class,” I wrote. I can’t remember much from high school—too many sports concussions, maybe—but I can remember when that interest in learning arrived. After Mr. Tonken died, I thought maybe I’d imagined it, so I excavated the 30-year-old copy of Pride and Prejudice from my shelf and looked at my notes inside. 

I wandered lonely as a cloud in 10 th grade. I wrote computer programs and played computer games and sports. My report cards from that period show that I glided along with only the mildest interruptions from applied effort. “John: Who are you? Where were you?” read the remarks next to the “unsatisfactory” grade I received from my upper school work program. “If the Upper School Office was, in fact, your Work Program Assignment this semester, it’s news to us here in the office!” Teachers did not react well to my posture. In middle school a math teacher responded to my good-faith effort at an answer by scoffing: “That’s like me asking you what color the blackboard is and you responding, ‘Fast.’ ”

The pages of Pride and Prejudice don’t look like they belong to the same kid. They are heavily underlined in red pen. There is writing in the margins. Mr. Tonken had made literature an adventure, throwing open trapdoors in the text in class to help us understand what was really going on. Actually, mostly he pressed us to do that for ourselves. This was not a class in which information was ladled over you. He expected you to go get it. He once asked who had read a poem we’d been assigned more than once. When no one in class raised her hand, he kicked us all out and told us not to come back until we’d read it at least twice.

He made you want to figure out what was happening in those books so that you could get as excited as he did, but you also wanted to see his reaction when you’d figured something out.

I wasn’t quite sure how to do this. Stories were just a series of events to me. But reading that Penguin edition of Pride and Prejudice in my third-floor bedroom, I finally figured it out. There was a lot going on behind all the walking in and out of drawing rooms. I got so excited, I read the 38-page introduction, which we had not been assigned.

In class on Monday, I was ready to deploy my revelations. The conversation started, and all the usual smart people spoke up. I didn’t quite know how to contribute—I did jokes and mumbling, not genuine observations. I wished to say something very sensible, but knew not how. And time was passing. When talk turned to blushing, I seized my opening. While reading the introduction I had underlined this passage: “it is perhaps not entirely irrelevant to note that Norman O Brown, following Freud, suggests that blushing is a sort of mild erection of the head.” I laid this knowledge on the class. 

Mr. Tonken looked at me like I had just spoken in Swahili. Was it that I had spoken at all? Or was it that I had chosen this particular piece of knowledge to make my first sortie? It didn’t matter. He was delighted to have another person in the conversation. I never left. His handwriting was the first other than my parents’ that I could recognize, because he wrote on my papers with such attention and care. He noticed that I somehow had come alive and wanted to make sure that flame didn’t go out. Thirty years later, it hasn’t.

But that was not Mr. Tonken’s greatest skill. A year or so ago in a conversation about my kids, he said, “Every student should have an adult they can tell their shit to.” (I can hear him say, “If that’s the word he used, that’s the word you  must  use.”) That’s the role he played in the two years after I had left his 10 th -grade class. He was an ally, a co-conspirator, and the conversations were wide-ranging. It was important to have a restaurant that always had a table for you, he advised. His declarations always had the same cadence—the first part was spoken in a normal tone, and then he emphasized the words of the second part like he was putting down rivets.

Most of all he testified to the messiness of life. In high school a lot of people are trying to fix you and improve you and elevate you. Neal Tonken listened and affirmed that things were confusing. Because he loved passionately, spoke loudly (and occasionally out of turn), and found life overwhelming in both beauty and frustration, he understood what you were saying. What I was saying.

He did all of this without letting us off the hook. I got a C-plus each semester in his class. I might have been newly alive but I was messy, and it was no good to be alive if you couldn’t make something of that passion in a way that makes sense to other people. “His work suffers from lack of personal discipline and attention to detail,” is how he put it.

He had high standards and expected us to meet them. But we wanted to. He did not have much time for BS. In the tributes after his death, classmates remembered his comments when they tried to sneak something by him. Dan Manatt, now a documentarian, tried to loaf by with a paper on The Great Gatsby that used a lot of fancy words to cover up that he was winging it. “There’s much less here than meets the eye,” wrote Mr. Tonken. Sam Thomas, now a novelist, did the same thing on a paper. “This is pure fluff. If it weren’t well written it would be an F. D.”

After I moved back to Washington, Neal and I became friends. We celebrated his marriage and his 50 th birthday. We had long dinners with our wives until the other tables were empty and busboys got grumpy. (This is why you need a restaurant that tolerates you.) He talked about his wife, Jancy, as glowingly as I had my crushes in high school, only his lasted a lot longer. He railed against one thing and another and he praised his current students for all the doors they were opening for him to the wonder and joy in the world. We’d lose touch for a few years and then meet up again with long hugs, mutual confessions of regret.

The last time I talked to Neal, I ran into him in a restaurant across the street from Sidwell Friends, where I went and which my kids now attend. I was with other parents about to go over for a meeting about our kids, and he was with fellow teachers. He’d retired by then after 29 years of teaching, and he’d been sick. I didn’t know. We stood arm in arm and said some things loudly and with a lot of laughter until he had to go home to rest. We promised that when the election was over and I was off the road we’d have another dinner.

Every time I saw Neal, I wanted to thank him. I often did. As I held his hand in the hospice bed a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t restrain the impulse until I thought he might wake up and tell me to knock it off. On my last visit, I was there with my friend Julia, who had been in that 10 th -grade class and had a similar bond with Neal. Our senior year the two of us had taken him out to lunch to say thanks. Time telescoped very quickly in that room with just the three of us. He could only say our names. We sat on his hospital bed and couldn’t say much more. I was shaken and sad and felt vanishingly small—like in high school. I could have used someone to tell my shit to. 

Another student, who had graduated almost 20 years after I had, drove straight from Ann Arbor when she heard the news. She brought her Norton Anthology of Poetry . She came into the room to read him letters that were just arriving from students who heard he was ill. A special inbox had been set up, and it was filling rapidly. She read letter after letter from students who weren’t just recalling events from his class but how he had changed their lives too. The room filled up with grateful souls.

That was Neal’s last lesson. That example. To let us see life in that rich tally—an accumulation of gratitude deserved and expressed. I got a chance to thank Neal, and it makes me think of other teachers to whom I am grateful—Bonnie Mazziotta, Sally Selby, Juan Jewell, George Lang, Ellis Turner, Susan Banker, JoAnne Lanouette, Harold Kolb and Anthony Winner. I carry with me what they have given by their instruction and their example. Perhaps you have teachers like that in your life. Write them. Be clear and direct. Tell them “thank you.”

Andscape Books

Lessons learned and cherished: the teacher who changed my life.

A giftable collection of essays from celebrity contributors celebrating the great work of teachers or a teacher they admire, curated by ABC journalist Deborah Roberts. Contributors include Oprah Winfrey, Jenna Bush Hager, Robin Roberts, Brooke Shields, Octavia Spencer, Rachael Ray, Misty Copeland, and more. Everyone can name a teacher who had an impact on their life. Educators not only open our minds to new ideas, but they also help us recognize our potential and our passions. However, rarely do they get credit for the life-changing work they do, and often teachers have no idea how their work can influence a student all the way into adulthood. In Lessons Learned and Cherished: The Teacher Who Changed My Life , award-winning ABC journalist Deborah Roberts curates a collection of essays and musings from celebrity friends and colleagues alike that share how teachers changed them, imparted life lessons, and helped them get to where they are today.

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The holiday gift from a teacher that changed my life

“It would be my gift to you,” my first viola teacher said to my mother when she offered to teach me weekly lessons for free. I don’t know what prompted Mrs. Milliken’s suggestion. The camaraderie among the teachers at the public elementary school where Mrs. Milliken taught orchestra and my mother taught fifth grade meant that teachers always looked out for each other and knew each others’ children by name. Mrs. Milliken knew I had been playing viola for two years in my school orchestra. But the generosity of Mrs. Milliken’s gift hinted at something deeper than just politeness. Maybe it was the wig on my mother’s head, freshly bald from chemotherapy, that made her want to reach out. Maybe it was the way I dug through the recycling bins in the orchestra room at my junior high after school, hungry for extra music to practice in the days before sheet music could be downloaded online. What neither Mrs. Milliken or I could know at the time was that her gift would forever alter the course of my life. 

My first lesson took place after school in a storage room at the elementary school where Mrs. Milliken taught. I was so excited that I rushed past my mother’s classroom without even dropping off my backpack as soon as I arrived at the school. At 13 years old, I was taller than Mrs. Milliken, but her presence seemed to fill the room. Her short black hair framed a full face of makeup. She favored suit jackets with shoulder pads and always dressed like she’d just stepped gracefully out of a vintage fashion magazine. Full of energy, she seemed capable of anything except sitting still. My eyes widened when she placed a thick stack of sheet music on the music stand in front of me. 

“I’m sure a lot of this is below your level,” Mrs. Milliken said, gesturing with her hands as she spoke. 

I stared at the inscrutable mess of black lines and dots on the top page of music. It was by far the most difficult piece I’d seen since I’d started playing the viola two years earlier. Sensing my nervousness, Mrs. Milliken smiled gently. Then she began to explain, note by note, until the squiggles on the page finally made sense.

Mrs. Milliken and I met once a week in the storage room for over two years. Our half-hour lessons stretched into hour lessons, then hour-and-a-half lessons. She taught with a sharp eye for technique, insisting on a perfect bow hold, good posture and flawless intonation. I practiced every day to meet her high standards, which propelled me to the top of my orchestra class, to the top of my school and eventually to the top of my region. Mrs. Milliken celebrated with joy when I achieved my goals. She came to every Region Orchestra concert I performed in, showering me with flowers and cards when I stepped off stage. She was as generous with her words of encouragement as she was with her time. “I’m proud of you,” she said so many times over the years, until her words began to imprint themselves in my mind.

“I’m proud of you,” she said so many times over the years, until her words began to imprint themselves in my mind.

As I advanced at the viola, Mrs. Milliken sent me to study with a different teacher. In the close-knit classical music community, I saw her often at concerts, where she always took time to give me a hug and tell me how much she enjoyed the performance. I sat on stage before the conductor emerged, looking for her in the audience and nearly always seeing her. 

By high school, I squeezed in two hours of viola practice around homework and hours of household chores. During the year in which my mother was sick with cancer, I had begun folding the laundry for our family of six, helping cook dinner and washing dishes after dinner. My mother had long since recovered from cancer, but my share of the household chores increased as I grew older. In the community I was raised in, it would have been as strange to see a teenage boy washing dishes as it would have been to see a girl changing the oil in a car. Evening after evening, I stood at the kitchen up to my elbows in soap suds, thinking of the homework I hadn’t yet begun as my brothers watched TV or played video games. I started to believe that my value as a person was no more than the chores that I performed. 

Playing the viola became my voice when I felt I had no voice at home. My music teachers and classmates treated me with respect. They listened when I spoke or played viola. My love of classical music blossomed. I connected to the music of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms in a way I couldn’t connect to my family. This music written hundreds of years ago reached through time to capture the emotions I struggled with in the present day. When people think of classical music, they picture stuffy symphonies, rich people in tuxedos and elitist attitudes. What they should picture is me as a teenager: struggling but determined, in love with the beautiful sound of the viola, and seeking a safe place where I could be myself. 

During my senior year of high school, I auditioned for music conservatories and was granted a scholarship to a school in New York — well over a thousand miles from my home in Texas. The instrument I loved had become my ticket out of my hometown. The next fall, I boarded a plane to New York with my viola and a giant suitcase. As I looked out the window at my hometown shrinking beneath me, my favorite Brahms sonata played in my head. 

Seven years and two music degrees later, I moved to a different city in my home state. Each week, students carrying musical instruments step into my office. I teach them proper bow holds and posture. Like Mrs. Milliken, I know that kindness and high standards produce good musicians and happy children. I’ve sent six young violists and violinists to college so far. Three of them earned full scholarships because of their auditions. Some of these students have become the first in their family to graduate from college. A few of them have already returned to our local music community as orchestra teachers to help the next generation of music students. One of my greatest joys has been growing from the child who needed a hand into the adult who can offer one.

One of my greatest joys has been growing from the child who needed a hand into the adult who can offer one.

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In one of my first performances since the pandemic, I played a Haydn quartet with some colleagues. As I walked off the stage, my heart still pounding, I noticed a familiar face in the audience. She wore the same style suit with shoulder pads. Her hair had faded from black to salt and pepper, but her smile remained the same. “I’m so proud of you,” Mrs. Milliken said as she hugged me, and in an instant, I was again that young girl searching for belonging and finding it in music.

Meghan Beaudry (she/her) is a writer based in Houston and is currently working on a memoir about surviving brain inflammation. 

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Lessons Learned and Cherished: The Teacher Who Changed My Life Hardcover – May 2, 2023

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• Print length 192 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Andscape Books
• Publication date May 2, 2023
• Dimensions 5.72 x 0.79 x 8.52 inches
• ISBN-10 1368095054
• ISBN-13 978-1368095051
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Andscape Books (May 2, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1368095054
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1368095051
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.6 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.72 x 0.79 x 8.52 inches
• #44 in Teacher & Student Mentoring (Books)
• #320 in Essays (Books)
• #1,218 in Education Workbooks (Books)

About the author

Deborah roberts.

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'Working here has changed my life' | How a Minnesota teacher learned from others to become a celebrated author

I f you want to know how a long-time Minnesota teacher became an acclaimed Minnesota author, Nicole Kronzer says the setting of her personal story plays a central role.

"Working here has changed my life in so many ways," said Kronzer, referencing the Champlin Park High School library where her recent career transition began. "I don't know who I would be without this place."

Kronzer has been a creative writing teacher at Champlin Park High School since 2006. In that time, she estimates that she has helped roughly 4,000 students find their voice.

"We do a lot of different activities that get our brain going," said Champlin Park senior, Nyakoach Mangok. "She just really helps with that, to take us outside of the box."

But for much of Kronzer's life, and early teaching career, she struggled to view her own writing in the same way.

"I somehow internalized that, in order to be a professional writer, you had to be a man and live in New York City and I was neither of those things," Kronzer said. "I thought that I didn't get to do that." 

It took several years, and many trips to the library, for that thought to finally fade.

"The librarian at the time, Terri Evans, started bringing in all these authors, and she said, 'It's really important that kids see that authors are just people,'" Kronzer said. "The side effect was that I also saw that authors are just people. They weren't magical unicorns." 

Though, one of those authors did help her unlock her own magic.

"I said, 'I think there's a young adult book inside me,'" Kronzer said, recalling that pivotal conversation. "And she's like, you should write it."

She did write it, and a few years later, in 2020, her debut novel, Unscripted was published.

"(Unscripted) is about this girl who has Saturday Night Live dreams and she goes to this improv camp in the mountains of Colorado," Kronzer said. "She ends up being the only girl in the top team and she finds herself in this emotionally abusive situation." 

The story resonated. Unscripted was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award for Young Adult Literature in 2021.

That success also gave Kronzer the confidence to scale back her teaching in order to focus on her next book, The Roof Over Our Heads . 

"One of the threads of that book that was influenced by my students is about this kid who thinks he has to be one kind of person in order to fit in with his family," Kronzer said. "But of course he doesn't. He just has to be true to who he is." 

In staying true to who she is, and her experience, Kronzer once again finds herself as a Minnesota Book Award Finalist for Young Adult Literature.

Kent Erdahl: "How much does this place translate to your writing." 

Nicole Kronzer: "Yeah, so both of my books were definitely influenced by my students." 

Her students are aware, and proud of, that influence.

"I think she sees what we do and how we interact with each other and puts it into her novels," Mangok said. "She listens. She's a very talented person and a very good teacher."

She's also seen her own story come full circle in the process.

"My dream is to become a published author," said Champlin Park Senior, Madie Smith. "So seeing her, knowing that she can do both (writing and teaching) is really cool and inspiring."

Erdahl: "Now your students are the ones saying you're inspiring them."

Kronzer:  "Awww. I love teenagers so much. I think they are the best of us. The thing about being a teenager is that it's the only time in your life that you can see both your childhood and your adulthood from where you're standing. Ultimately, their centers are just full of so much hope and then it makes me feel like I get to have that hope too."

For more information on the finalists, and winners, of the 2024 Minnesota Book Awards, click here .

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"Leave It Blank": Teacher Asks Aspirants For Rs 10 Lakh To Solve NEET Paper

The neet-ug candidates were told to solve the questions that they knew and leave others blank so that they could be filled with answers when papers were collected from them after the exam..

The racket was unearthed at a Gujarat school that was a centre for NEET-UG exam (Representational)

A criminal case has been registered against a schoolteacher in Godhra in Gujarat's Panchmahal district and two others for their alleged involvement in trying to help six candidates appearing for the NEET-UG competitive exam by promising to solve their papers for a sum of Rs 10 lakh each, police said on Thursday.

The racket was unearthed at a Godhra school designated as a centre for the NEET-UG exam held on Sunday for entrance to medical colleges after the district collector received a tip-off that some persons were involved in malpractice, according to an FIR.

ALSO READ: MBBS Student Appears As Proxy Candidate In NEET, Detained With 5 Others

A physics teacher identified as Tushar Bhatt, who was the deputy superintendent of exam at the centre, was booked along with two others -- Parsuram Roy and Arif Vora. Rs 7 lakh in cash was recovered from Bhatt's car which was paid to him by Vora as an advance to help a candidate get into the merit list, said the police.

As per an understanding reached between the accused and some NEET-UG (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) aspirants, the latter were asked to leave blank questions whose answers they did not know. The answers to these questions were to be written once the papers were collected after the exam, they said, quoting the FIR.

As per the FIR lodged at the Godhra taluka police station on a complaint of the district education officer, Bhatt was working as a teacher at Jay Jalaram School and was appointed the deputy centre superintendent for NEET in the city.

A team of district additional collector and district education officer reached the school on the day of the examination and questioned Bhatt. When they checked his mobile phone, they recovered a list of 16 candidates with their names, roll numbers and exam centres which was sent to his WhatsApp number by co-accused Roy, stated the FIR.

When asked about the list, Bhatt said these were candidates who were to take the NEET exam at his centre. He confessed to having been promised Rs 10 lakh each to solve the question papers of six of these candidates, District Education Officer Kirit Patel said.

One of the aspirants had paid Rs 7 lakh in advance which was seized by authorities.

ALSO READ:  'Munna-Bhai?': MBBS Student Gives NEET Exam For Younger Brother, Both Arrested

The investigating team seized the teacher's mobile phone, cash and the car from where the cash was recovered and submitted a report to the district collector, who later ordered the registration of an FIR.

"The FIR was lodged last night (Wednesday) and further action was being taken," Patel said.

As per the FIR, the accused said the candidates who promised to pay money were instructed to solve the questions that they knew and leave others blank so that they could be filled with answers when papers were collected from them after the exam.

The three accused were booked for criminal breach of trust, cheating and criminal conspiracy, a Godhra taluka police station official said.

Further investigation in the case was underway, said the official.

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The NEET (UG) is an all India entrance test for students who wish to pursue undergraduate medical (MBBS), dental (BDS) and AYUSH (BAMS, BUMS, BHMS) courses in government and private institutions in India.

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I worked in schools for over 2 decades. My kids are homeschooled.

• I worked in schools for over two decades and loved that my kids were in school. 
• The pandemic forced remote learning and my kids thrived. 
• I appreciate that they are safer at home than in schools and that we get to travel. 

I thought I could never homeschool my own kids .

It wasn't for me. Not only did homeschooling seem difficult and intimidating, but as a former teacher, I loved that my kids were in school.

For more than two decades, I worked in schools — as a classroom teacher, after-school program teacher, volunteer, tutor, and substitute. I taught all ages, from preschoolers through high schoolers. I was an ardent supporter of public schools and thrived in traditional schools myself.

But the pandemic made me reevaluate everything.

My kids thrived during remote learning

Remote learning during the pandemic wasn't for everyone. Surprisingly, my family loved it. There were growing pains, but this new version of school worked for us.

In particular, one of our children is a talented student but faces social challenges in certain settings, like school. During remote learning, for the first time, they had the freedom to focus on learning without the social exhaustion of a seven-hour school day.

They thrived.

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I was available as a consistent aide for them, which our school system had been unable to provide. With more selective social interactions, our kid was able to approach those interactions from a place of strength and curiosity.

After years of trying to fit our child's needs into traditional school, we finally, and inadvertently, found where they fit best, and it was learning from home .

We could travel

Along with that realization, we'd long dreamed of my spouse working remotely so we could spend time in other countries. I wanted my kids to experience other cultures and ways of life. When the pandemic forced employers to explore remote work, this far-fetched dream became plausible, and by homeschooling, we weren't limited to summers. We decided to lean into learning through travel.

While homeschooling, we've traveled to a dozen US National Parks and lived for a month each in Spain and Kenya, with an upcoming stay in Costa Rica. Being able to travel during off seasons means more affordable prices and more ideal weather.

I wanted them to have anti-racist education

Prior to our decision, our local school board faced regular opposition to diversity and inclusion efforts. As in many communities, discourse became divisive. Speaking at a school board meeting in favor of inclusivity, I realized I didn't want my kids' education caught in the crossfire of political talking points. I wanted them to learn honest, thought-provoking, age-appropriate lessons about difficult topics, but I knew as an educator that teachers needed to tread carefully for their own protection in the current political climate.

Classroom teachers are the best people to guide students through these topics, but their freedom to teach is constantly being challenged. In the meantime, my kids have a teacher in their home who can teach without hesitation and answer their questions without repercussions.

I wanted them to be safe

There have been 18 school shootings on K-12 school grounds in the United States so far this year. Our district receives multiple threats each year, some deemed credible enough to result in increased police presence or building-wide searches. District administration closed school for two days after credible threats to minority students. Meanwhile, mental health and counseling services for students are overburdened and underfunded.

I feel anxiety for friends and loved ones every time we get the district's warning notifications, but a part of me also breathes easier knowing my own children are in the backyard working on science projects, not practicing lockdown drills.

Homeschooling wasn't on my radar. Yet it was the missing piece to helping my child and expanding my kids' perspectives. It's worth rethinking the possibilities of what education can be.

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Stormy Daniels Takes the Stand

The porn star testified for eight hours at donald trump’s hush-money trial. this is how it went..

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In a second day of cross-examination, Stormy Daniels resisted the implication she had tried to shake down Donald J. Trump by selling her story of a sexual liaison.

Here are six takeaways from Ms. Daniels’s earlier testimony.

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