Description
Endorsements
“Great teachers make all the difference in one’s journey to self-realization. I would never have become the writer I am, such as I am, without their incalculable encouragement. So this tribute to the noble, underacknowledged importance of the teaching profession cannot be recommended more heartily.”
— Alex Shoumatoff, editor of DispatchesFromTheVanishingWorld.com and contributor to Vanity Fair and the New Yorker
From the Book:
“Like those of most good teachers, her most important lessons didn’t come from a book. She taught me how to be a human being, to have dignity, and that it was never appropriate to whine or complain.”
— Maya Angelou
“It all could have been different for me and would have been, if not for whatever it is that makes an older person — busy person, tired person, finite person — turn toward a young person and say, in whatever way is needed, ‘Of course you can. Why not? Give it a try.’”
— George Saunders
“When I was a child of nine, I met the first great person in my life. I would forever use her as the needle of my moral compass, of my never-ending passion to learn, and of my work ethic. That person was my teacher.”
— Gene Simmons
“His tangents — the fascinating ruminations between the lines of the assigned texts, the stuff we’d never find in a book — kept our interest in a way that no prospectus could. We left his classroom not merely with notebooks full of jottings but with hearts excited and inspired.”
— Jerry Spinelli
“Teaching is an act of faith. Life too. You do the best you know how. And you hope that it makes a difference. And when you get that opportunity, you thank the people who made a difference in your life. This is where the meaning comes from.”
— Jess Walter
“To this day I remember her kindness, her patience, and the enthusiasm that she mustered each and every day.”
— Daisy Martinez
