Best Teachers Touch Hearts as Well as Heads

I bounced around a lot as a child, and in my fifth-grade year, I had four teachers between two elementary schools. But I'll never forget Mrs. Swenson.

I've wracked my brain for her first name. I'm not sure I ever knew. Still, I can see her shiny, auburn hair, always pinned up in a bun, and the suits she wore with style and elegance, exuding a natural sense of authority that made ours one of the best-behaved classes in the whole school. We all hung on her every word, and I bet there wasn't a child in class who didn't love her.

Mrs. Swenson, who has long since passed on to that great classroom in the sky, helped me understand how important it was to do my very best, even with stuff I felt I didn't do very well. That lesson wasn't in any textbook, it was something she imprinted on my heart, with gentle words and a caring smile.

I thought about her Thursday morning as I watched a group of students receive Superintendent's Awards of Excellence at for their accomplishments in and out of the classroom.

Each student had selected a teacher who influenced him or her the most.

Tim Hammer was surprised that Corey Sheltrown chose to honor him, and that's not unusual. These past few months, I've watched as district staff members have received awards, and every single one looked genuinely shocked at the recognition.

These folks don't have poor self-esteem; if that was the case, they'd never make it out of a classroom alive. Rather, I think, the reward for them just doesn't come in a certificate or a plaque. As Board of Education President Howard Wallach put it Thursday morning, it's when "magic goes on in the classroom."

I hear people complain about schoolteachers, and I'd be a fool to think every single teacher in Farmington Schools finds that magic. For every Mrs. Swenson in my K-12 years, I met at least one teacher who really should have chosen another career path.

But consider, for a moment, something else I heard over and over again while making the rounds of staff awards this spring.

This is how Support Person of the Year Roxanne Mecham put it: "I'm grateful to be able to get up each day, and I'm motivated to come in and work with the people here. There's never a day when I'm not excited to be here."

And here's what Middle School Teacher of the Year Jon Vondrasek said: "I feel extremely honored to get this, because ... in my eyes, every teacher in this school is a good teacher."

That tells me there are plenty of Mrs. Swensons in Farmington Public Schools.

And how cool is that?