It
took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as
the students left the room, each one handed in the papers.
That
Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate
sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that
individual.
On
Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class
was smiling. "Really?" she heard whispered. "I never knew I meant
anything to anyone!" and "I didn't know others liked me so much," were most
of the comments.
No
one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they
discussed them after class or with their parents, but it didn't matter. The
exercise had accomplished its purpose. The students were happy with
themselves and one another. That group of students moved on.
Several
years later, one of the students was killed in Viet
Nam and his teacher attended the funeral of that
special student. She had never seen a serviceman in a military coffin
before. He looked so handsome, so mature..
The
church was packed with his friends. One by one those who loved him took a
last walk by the coffin. The teacher was the last one to bless the
coffin.
As
she stood there, one of the soldiers who acted as pallbearer came up to her.
"Were you Mark's math teacher?" he asked. She nodded: "Yes." Then he said:
"Mark talked about you a lot."
After
the funeral, most of Mark's former classmates went together to a luncheon.
Mark's mother and father were there, obviously waiting to speak with his
teacher.
"We
want to show you something," his father said, taking a wallet out of his
pocket. "They found this on Mark when he was killed. We thought you might
recognize it."
Opening
the billfold, he carefully removed two worn pieces of notebook paper that
had obviously been taped, folded and refolded many times. The teacher knew
without looking the papers were the ones on which she had listed all
the good things each of Mark's classmates had said about him.
"Thank
you so much for doing that," Mark's mother said. "As you can see, Mark
treasured it."
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