For all of my life, my family has been in education. My grandfather was the head of the chemistry department at the University of West Florida for many years, my mother a guidance counselor for Escambia County, and my aunt a high school science teacher in various places. One of my most treasured mentors still to this day was a professor from my college days.
The common thread that I’ve always admired in educators is not the number of degrees they carry, or the subject they teach. What sets a teacher apart from the rest of us is the way that they see.
By seeing, I don’t mean perfect vision, or how quickly their eyes trace across the pages that they read. Teachers have a way of seeing below the surface of their students. They see potential and capabilities living within us that others may have trouble noticing…