I am by nature a teacher. I am not by profession a “teacher” but truly I am a teacher in everything that I do. Anyone who knows me at all knows this about me and will come to me to help them if they need to know how to do something. Even if I don’t know how to do what they are asking, trust me I can find out and show you how to do it. It’s one of my true gifts.
Most people do not have the opportunity to realize their talents until they are much older (if ever) but I was able to figure out what I was born to do at a very early age. It isn’t because I liked to play school or admired my teachers, in fact I loathed school and thought most of my teachers disliked me. From pre-school to 2nd grade I dreaded school. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy learning because learning about anything was and is my favorite occupation. It wasn’t because I didn’t like other children or didn’t enjoy playing or that I had some kind of disfigurement or condition that caused me to be ostracized. It was because I was too smart for my own good (and yes you can actually be too smart for your own good).
My parents treated me like an adult, spoke to me like an adult and actively encouraged my intellectual curiosity. This was fine when I was at home or with other adults but when I was with other kids, particularly at school, it didn’t work out so well. I remember my mother having to send vocabulary words to school for me when I was in first grade because the words they were using for spelling and vocabulary were too easy for me. This did not make me popular with the other kids, who thought that I thought I was “so smart”. I was really confused by their treatment as I was just me and didn’t know how to be any different.
I was bored A LOT in school so I would get up from my desk and go over and “help” the other students. If they didn’t do it fast enough or I didn’t think they understood, well I would just “help” them out and do it for them. This, of course, got me in a lot of trouble.
So here I am spending my life at school being bored, teased, and disciplined constantly for getting out of my seat and talking. I’m in trouble at school, I’m in trouble at home and I have no friends. Doesn’t this sound like the beginning of a bad after school movie? I can’t imagine where this was leading but I’m fairly certain that it wasn’t going to turn out well.
Fortunately for me, Mrs. Greer was my 2nd grade teacher. Instead of disciplining me, chastising me and embarrassing me because I wanted to “help”, she decided to do something that would forever change my life. She asked me to be a tutor. There were students in the class who were struggling with reading and she decided to give me my own group to work with so that I could help them learn to read better. She saw me as an asset not a hindrance. For the first time in my life, someone was actually asking me to just be me. It was the most enlightening moment of my young life.
Mrs. Greer’s belief that I could help others and that it would in turn benefit me is not a novel idea. But her willingness to look beyond what everyone else saw and take an interest in me and give me a chance to do something positive and powerful was very progressive. That singular act, by a teacher who really took an opportunity to see me and help me to be successful, changed my life forever. I learned the magic of imparting knowledge and the benefits of understanding someone who is different from you. The other children were able to see me as someone to look up to and lean on instead of “little miss smarty pants”. The whole dynamic of my life at school turn around in that one simple act.
Mrs. Greer didn’t stop there. At the time my family was living in Livermore and she met with my parents and convinced them that they needed to move to Fremont so that I could be tested for the new gifted program that was being offered in some school districts. Livermore did not have the program and she was adamant that I needed far more than public school could offer me in regular classes. She must have been pretty convincing because my parents did move and I spent 3rd grade at Parkmont elementary waiting to be tested so that I could get into the gifted program (it didn’t start until 4th grade).
I was too young to realize what she had done for me but over the years I came to understand the profound impact that she had on my life. She epitomizes what every teacher should strive to be. She taught us the 2nd grade curriculum but I know I’m not the only student that learned more about life than reading, writing and arithmetic from Mrs. Greer.
Mrs. Greer believed in me. She believed in the possibility of what I could achieve and she decided to do what she could to give the opportunity to shine. Mrs. Greer has passed on from this life but what she left behind, if only in me, lives on. Thank you Mrs. Greer for ensuring that I didn’t remain lost.
M.-
PS: I did see Mrs. Greer one time after I left Fremont. It was unfortunately not how I would have liked to run into her but I am glad that I was able to speak to her again. I was working at Carl’s Jr’s (fast food), while I was putting myself through college and she happened to come in while I was working at the counter. It’s very strange because this Carl’s Jr’s was in Union City, Ca and the timing had to be perfect for us to meet up again since I rarely ever worked at the front counter. She came in with her daughter and I recognized her right away but I was embarrassed that she would be seeing me at a fast food joint in an ugly brown uniform. She walked up to the counter and said, “Michelle Miranda”! I said, “Hello Mrs. Greer!” She turned to her daughter and said, “This is the best student, the smartest student I ever had”. Which made me blurt out, “I’m in college!” Hoping that her daughter wouldn’t think…smart huh, then why is she working at Carl’s Jr’s? I said, “Well, you were the best teacher that I ever had!” She smiled and I told her about college and then they got their order and sat down. That was the last time I saw her. Her visit reminded me that someone believed in me one time and it came at a moment in my life when I really didn’t believe in myself very much. So technically she changed my life twice. I hope that everyone has a Mrs. Greer as a teacher. I know that I am grateful that I had her.
Unbound 