Christa McAuliffe, the astronaut and teacher, of Concord, New Hampshire, said, “Teachers touch the future,” right before her life came to a sudden end as one of seven crew members were killed in the Space Shuttle, Challenger on January 28, 1986.
The accident made a permanent impression in my memory because I just happened to be watching Good Morning America when the accident occurred!
As a 1966 graduate of McLain High in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and one who lived in an orphanage, I’m here to tell you that teachers do touch the future!
I wish to share what I’ve discovered to be one of the key missing elements of most high schools across the nation.
As a student at McLain, which boasted a student body in excess of 1,400, I enjoyed our weekly, all school assembly that was packed with motivation.
On a Red Letter Day in my life, the crossroads in my adolescence, a senior read aloud her first place Freedom Foundation essay contest piece.
At fifteen, I was awakened inside. I knew, I promised myself, I pledged, that the next year I would win a prize on my own essay.
Though I practiced not all year, the dream, the promise grew in my heart, ready to burst forth and bloom. Several weeks before the deadline, I awakened with a start in the middle of the night, jumped out of bed full of inspiration and insight. I wrote as fast as my fingers would fly and I composed a piece that placed third in that contest!
Self-esteem began grow, to mount up within my heart, to show on my face, even though I lived in an abusive orphanage. After being privileged to read my piece, I began to perform in plays upon the stage. I spoke in assemblies before the student body and found the thrill, the exhilaration of doing what I feared most, of standing before a crowd!
I was compelled to follow the dream that was planted by inspiration and by a teacher who was wise enough to encourage us whenever and however he could, to use our talents, as speech students to participate in those weekly assemblies.
I was blessed with a teacher, Shirl White, who was not only a speech teacher, but play director as well. I was taken in a group, from state to state, to participate in forensic contests, because he counted not the cost, nor the hours consumed after school.
I was privileged to have a teacher who was in my corner, who pushed me out while I dug in my heels, to overcome my painful childhood.
In fact I elected to take speech three years in a row simply because I sensed that speech class was the only subject on our curriculum that I could take that would help me overcome my painful shyness.
I will always believe that God placed Shirl White in my path to lead me to a new day!
I’m thankful to have grown up in an era when all school weekly assemblies weren’t a chore. I wonder if I would have ever gotten the idea to write had it not been for the inspiration I received just hearing the Freedom Foundation Essay winner read her piece aloud!
I know God works in mysterious ways and He always gets me to the right place at the right time and for that I am most grateful.
Contact Sarah at [email protected]