When I often hear about the backlash against teachers in many areas of society (there are lots of good thing said as well), I try to think about every time I have seen a student outside of school in a grocery store. To many of our students, seeing a teacher outside of the school is one of the most amazing and awe inspiring moments that can happen. It is almost like they can’t believe that you have to buy food! In my career, after a student sees me somewhere, they will often remind me of this fact many times over at school.
“Mr. Couros, do you know I saw you at Superstore?”
“Yes…Don’t you remember I talked to you that day for about five minutes? How could I forget?”
To this day, I still have trouble calling my former teacher’s by their first name because I have such a great deal of respect for them and it just doesn’t feel right.
When I hear the tough comments made about our profession, I always go back to this thought. If we are to truly serve our students, and they are our real customers, and we get that response from them when we see them outside of school, we are obviously doing some great things. When our students are happy, that is the first yet often most overlooked, sign of success.
