The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education.

He argued: "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"

He reminded the other dinner guests that it's true what they say about teachers: "Those who can...do. Those who can't...teach."

To corroborate, he said to another guest: "You're a teacher, Susan," he said. "Be honest. What do you make?"

Susan, who had a reputation of honesty and frankness, replied, "You want to know what I make?"

"I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could."

“I make kids believe in themselves when no one else will.”

"I make a C+ feel like a Congressional Medal of Honor and an A- feel like a slap in the face if the student did not do his or her very best."

"I make parents tremble in fear when I call home"

"You want to know what I make?

"I make kids wonder."

"I make them question."

"I make them criticize."

"I make them apologize and mean it."

"I make them write."

"I make them read, read, read."

"I make them spell definitely beautiful, definitely beautiful, and definitely beautiful over and over and over again, until they will never misspell either one of those words again."

"I make them show all their work in math and hide it all on their final drafts in English."

"I make them understand that if you have a dream, then follow it...and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make or what you do, you pay them no attention."

"You want to know what I make?! " "I make a difference." "What about you?"

--------------------------------------------------------
Speaker/Author/Professor/Consultant
RealWorld University
"Where Success is the Only Major"
website: www.RWuniversity.com
email: jmartin@rwuniversity.com
phone: 850.212.0227
fax: 850.222.7752

Joe Martin is an award-winning national speaker, author, professor, and educational consultant. He's the author of "Good Teachers Never Quit." Joe speaks and consults for more than 50 schools and school districts across the country each year (delivering more than 100 presentations). His mission is to help students, teachers, and administrators learn, lead, and live with purpose and passion. Joe was voted "Speaker of the Year" by the Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities, and he's the host of the "Good Teachers Never Quit" radio show. He's also a columnist for the Teachers.net Gazette. To find out more, you can visit his web sites at www.RWuniversity.com and www.NewTeacherSuccess.com.

For a FREE brochure: www.rwuniversity.com/brochure.pdf

This brought a tear to my eye!

Very True

Excellent!!

Build futures!

That was great! Didn't bring a tear to my ear, but really, it was wonderful to read. I don't like when people judge others by what they do or by how much money that they make from their jobs. In honesty, all jobs are important. There may be a day when you think down upon the garbageman, or the person that sells you coffee, or the guys that make nails, but really every one of those people are important, and so are their jobs. The article was very nice because it dealt with teachers and we can all relate, but we must also allow time to reflect on everyone else out there. Put all of us screwballs together and that's what makes our great society!

Perhaps what it really shows is that teachers ought to make a lot, lot more ....
Sue

Excellent essay!

The arrogance of the greedy, the indiffence of the self-satisfied, and the ignorance of the ungrateful continually stuns me. What do you make? You help people give birth to their own personalities and provide the tools so they can become who they want to be. One quick measure of a society is how teachers are treated. The United States, on this criteria and many others today, remains a troubled society.

Thanks for that!
I was quite in a trouble with explaining it to myself: what do I do as a teacher? I'm 25, have been in adult teaching so far and now started a new career with young esl learners - having behavioural and social problems. As I was reading, it suddenly made my new job worthy enough not to give it up before I even had a chance to make a difference.

I just have a word: Beautiful!!!!!