Global Influencers: Teaching Educators How to Grow the Future

I still remember my 4th grade teacher Mrs. Larson. She was kind and compassionate, always smiling and quietly stooping by my desk to reassure me that all was well. When she sensed that I was challenged, she would touch my shoulder as she walked the room.

One of my Middle School teachers, Mr. Good, was a collegiate gymnast, coach of the gymnastics team. I was the super-skinny kid with high metabolism who could barely do a forward roll in the gym. Mr. Good and Mr. Brewster were two of the four teachers of the Inner School, a new program for the gifted and troubled. I was gifted. I say that because I'm doing now what I've always done: I perceive, analyze, I figure things out.

English was my favorite because we got to listen to contemporary music while reading the lyrics. Then we discussed what the lyrics meant indivdually and collectively. It revealed the creative side of me. I made surprising connections, told stories, and learned that I was a born storyteller. That experience remains my happy place to this day.

Mr. Good validated me by signing my yearbook, “Peter, you have more common sense than anyone I know.” And then just like that he was gone. We moved to another district with a different middle school and energy that I absolutely hated. But Mr. Good and Mr. B never left my heart.

My first class at my first day of my first year of high school was Math. After the first week, Mrs. Holmgren pulled me aside and flat out told me she didn't like me nor my attitude. “Just give me harder Math then”, I replied which completely surprised her. At the beginning of the second week, she told me I had to arrive at class 15 minutes early to go over my assignments. As I progressed through quadratics into calculus, two-thirds of the massive wall-to-wall chalkboard was filled with equations. I had to copy them on paper, solve them and then leave. By the end of the school year I had fulfilled my college requirements.

I didn't see a single educator listed on Time's Top 100 Influencers 2023, nor did I expect to. I'm surprised/not surpised that I feel tears welling in my eyes and let that go to refocus on how I remain blessed by the teachers who greatly influenced the trajectory of my life.

College is where the future is made. Teacher's Colleges are the top global influencers. Everybody remembers the teachers who shaped them into the people they are today.