A teacher makes a difference One of my favorite movies is Mr. Holland’s Opus. A movie was on that my wife was watching that reminded me of MHO called “That’s what I am” with Ed Harris. Again a movie about a great teacher, in a different time. There is a teacher I am always reminded of that really had a lasting impact on me…Mr. Matthews. Mr. Matthews by all accounts would be considered nothing less than a nerd today and I think most of the guys and girls that went to North Shore high school with me would agree. I had Mr. Matthews for Physics and the class was 6th period. About that time every day, I would be thinking about where I would be sleeping that night. I always wondered if whoever I was staying with was going to tell me it was time to leave that night…which happened a couple of times. When this happened, I usually slept in the park and a couple of times I slept outside the field house with my bag of clothes as football practice was the first thing up in the morning and I would shower up for school then. During Mr. Matthews class, I was also thinking about football practice. I enjoyed playing football so much. Our coaches were great and while I was on the practice field, I rarely thought about the real world problems that were going on. Mr. Matthews got little of my attention. He pulled me to the side on a couple of occasions and asked me why I wasn’t trying. I never told him my problems, nor did he problem suspect. The main thing that came though was he really cared. After I dropped out of school my senior year, and taking responsibility fully for my life…Mr. Matthew’s efforts always resonated in my thoughts. I got my G.E.D. and went to Sul Ross State University to play football, but I never again didn’t apply myself. I made Dean’s list my first semester back in school and continued to do so for several more semesters. I felt I owed it to him and people like Terry Lloyd (Coach) and Henry Camm (my section chief when I was in 1st Cav/Army) to not put in the best effort possible. For those that are teachers…I don’t know how it is today, but I can tell you that sincere effort really does matter…and you will make an impact on a young person’s life (even if you don’t think you did).
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 19:15:07 +0000
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