تغريدة مثبتة

One person can make a difference.
This past weekend when visiting my father he shared a story with my friend and I about a teacher that changed his life.
When he was a little boy he transferred to a new school outside of the inner city and was the only Hispanic in his class. He like all the other kids in his former school district were passed along despite not having the knowledge to move forward. He said, "you showed up you passed."
The 1st week at his new school in his new class he was asked to read in front of the class and he couldn't. He said, "baby I didn't even know if I was holding the book the right way." As he was standing there another kid in the class shouted, "look the ****** can't read" and the whole class laughed at him. He said he wanted to cry and run away but his teacher did something that changed his life.
She took him out to the hallway and apologized to him and said I promise you not one person in this entire school will ever treat you like that again. She went back into the classroom & lectured the kids for their behavior. He said he felt like he was in that hallway forever and then he heard furniture moving. She finally came back & brought him into the classroom. She had moved his desk next to hers. She told him this is where you are going to sit and I'm going to tutor you.
My father sat there all year & started to catch up to all the other students. By the the end of the year he was almost at the grade level he should have been at. The next year, at the same school, his new teacher did the same as his 1st teacher. She had him sit next to her desk the entire year. By the time he left that school he was proficient in reading.
My father said if it wasn't for his teacher that he would not be the man he is today. He said, "baby I would probably still be illiterate & who knows what kind of person I would be if it wasn't for her."
Those that know my father know this is the strongest man you'll ever meet. Extremely articulate. Extremely intelligent. Extremely confident. Extremely generous and courageous. You would never have imagined something like this to ever have happened to him. I knew my father grew up poor & in the projects but I never knew this happened to him as a child.
As his daughter I am so grateful to his teacher, who he calls by her entire name 😊, for giving my father the gift of knowledge and compassion. She truly changed the trajectory of his life and like he has always said...one person can make a difference.
Her one action changed his life and as a result has changed my life.
I have always lived by "one person can make a difference" but today it means so much more to me than ever before. So always remember that one person can truly make a difference.
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