BookLovers: School is underway in SouthCoast, here’s to the teachers

“What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul.” — Joseph Addison

My mom recently dropped off a bag filled with my old school papers, all of them English and language arts assignments through the years.

There were stories and books I’d written in first and second grade. Essays I’d written in 9th and 10th grade. Looking back at them, and reading chronologically, I was struck at how school, how teachers, shape us.

As the daughter of two teachers, I know how much they care. I got to thinking about the power they have to shape us.

As school is now underway in SouthCoast, I want to remind teachers how much your matter in the course of a lifetime.

You are shaping human souls.

Looking through that bag of memories, I got to thinking about Kindergarten: Mrs. Keyes reading to us in a rocking chair, sitting by her feet to see the pictures better.

First grade — Mrs. Morash reading “If You Give A Mouse a Cookie” and giving us all chocolate chip cookies. Books we read line the chalkboard ledge around the room — “Owl Moon,” “The Mitten,” and “The Paper Bag Princess.”

In second grade, Mrs. Cabral had us write our own books. (A few were in that bag.) I hail mine masterpieces, required reading in my Cabbage Patch Kids classroom.

Third Grade, writing our own autobiographies with Mrs. Updegrove. I called mine, “A Tale of Seashells.”

Reading “My Side of the Mountain” with Mrs. Belair in fourth grade, and wishing I lived in a tree with a falcon.

I remembered the first time I cried reading a book — Seventh Grade, “The Snow Goose,” by Paul Gallico in Mrs. MacNeil's class.

I could go on, through high school and college professors and school newspaper advisors.

As SouthCoast kids and teachers return to school, I just want to take a minute here to remind teachers how much they matter.

To remind teachers that they leave lifelong impressions, that they are chipping away at blocks of marble that will smooth out over decades to come.

From day to day in a classroom, especially during the pandemic, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed discouraged, frustrated. Or to overlook the power you have in general.

But know this: the books you read will be remembered.

You are part of someone's childhood, and those memories are not easily forgotten.

And your assignments, one day, will be dropped off in a bagful of memories to a grown-up kid who remembers.

Lauren Daley is a book columnist and freelance writer. Contact her at ldaley33@gmail.com. She tweets @laurendaley1. Read more at https://www.facebook.com/daley.writer 

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Daley's tribute to teachers.