What Do Teachers Make?
Dear Editor:
“Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.” John F. Kennedy
A friend who sends me funny jokes, stories, chain mail, and surveys sent me this quote, which inspired me to stop and think about those to whom I entrust my children.
Moving into Catholic Schools Week I was compelled to express my appreciation for my children’s educators. My children are thriving from the instruction and inspiration that they are receiving from their teachers. I want to thank the teachers and support staff for all they do, everyday, to make my children feel safe, loved, and valued.
Do you know what teachers make? They make children wonder, question, work hard, and use their gifts to succeed. They make smiles appear and light bulbs light. Teachers make sad days happy and rainy days bright. They make “boo boos” disappear with old-fashioned TLC, a cool band-aid and a promise that it will heal.
Besides the necessities of creating lesson plans with curriculum objectives and individual modifications for all their learners from gifted to challenged, implementing technology, teaching good conduct, creating bulletin boards, communicating with parents, attending professional development workshops, photocopying, researching the latest trends to form connections with the children, taking classes, working a second job…just to name a few, the most important answer to what teachers make is Teachers make a difference.
Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other professions. ~Author Unknown.
My family has been very blessed to be a part of the Stella Maris family. Happy Catholic Schools Week!
Liz Surozenski
Shelter Island
Healing
Dear Editor
Haiti. How healing could it be if we, the USA committed ourselves to really healing the situation in our poor neighbor Haiti? The earthquake, as awful as it is, seems like the culmination of suffering which has gone largely ignored by the rest of the world. This is a country so poor that their children eat dirt cookies and are thankful for this as a blessing.
How healing could it be if the bank executives who were rescued by the American people now chose to visibly donate a portion of their newly found wealth and bonuses?
How healing could it be if Americans, who are so willing to go to war and sacrifice ourselves to fight the evil and hatred in the world, committed themselves visibly to really compassionate action for our poor neighbor? Think about it.
Rick Gold
Sag Harbor
Thanks for Help
To the Editor,
We would like to thank Kathryn and Doug DeGroot for generously allowing us to have a bake sale at their ice rink. The Bridgehampton Lions Cubs For Kids and their friends raised $1000 for Partners in Health, a relief organization in Haiti that has been operating there for twenty years. We also want to thank the many people who bought our baked goods and made this effort such a great success!
Yours Sincerely,
Annabel DeGroot, Milly Battle, Zoe Diskin, Harriet DeGroot, Josie Battle, Allie Clarke, Darby Saskas, Jonny DeGroot, Jade Diskin and Beatrice DeGroot.
Milly and Josephine Battle
Sag Harbor
Fear is a Terrible Thing
Dear Editor:
While I was taking a shower this morning, I started thinking about the day Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. I was on my way to a sociology class at Nassau Community College when I overheard my professor, Dr. Kirwood, talking to one of my Afro-American classmates. He asked him what he was carrying in his briefcase. The student opened the briefcase, which was filled with martial arts weapons. Dr. Kirwood, who was also Afro-American, asked him why he was carrying all these weapons. The student replied that he was carrying them to protect himself after hearing about Dr. King’s assassination. The student told him that they (meaning “whitey”) had just killed their leader and feared that he was next.
When I arrived at my class, Dr. Kirwood began to talk about his reaction to Dr. King’s assassination. He said that not only was he sad that Dr. King was dead, he was mad that his assassination had caused one of his students to fear so much for his own life that he had armed himself with deadly weapons.
As I was writing this letter, it occurred to me that the reason I carried an M-16 rifle, .45 and .38 side arms, hand grenades and an M-79 grenade launcher when I was walking the point in the K-9 corps in Vietnam, was that I was afraid. Fear is a terrible thing. It makes you do things you ordinarily wouldn’t do.
Richard Sawyer
Sag Harbor
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