Mrs. Hallyburton

A friend of mine recently published a collection of her poems and drawings, and dedicated the book to her kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Hallyburton. When I asked her about the dedication, she described Mrs. Hallyburton as 'the turning point' in her life.

"'The turning point'?" I said incredulously. "At 5?"

"Most definitely," affirmed my friend. "She didn't really teach me to write, but she showed me I could. I told her stories, she wrote them down, then we made a book. After that, it was just a matter of picking up a few skills to do what I already knew I could do."

"Amazing," I said. "Tell me more."

"When I told her I wanted to be either an astronaut or a mother, she told me, 'Why not be both...and a whole lot more? You can be whatever you want to be,' she always said, and then she'd add, 'Why go to the movies when you can be in them?'"

"More?" I said.

"I liked to draw - both inside and outside the lines. That was OK with her. In fact, she encouraged us all; when it snowed and the buses were late, she would give everyone scrap paper and say, 'Draw me something.' And whatever we did went up on the wall just the same. I once drew an eagle that looked like a cauliflower and she said, 'I love it!', put a heart with three kisses on it and pinned it on the front of her desk. After that, I just kept drawing."

"Do you think she knew how important her job was?" I asked.

My friend reflected, then said, "I really don't think she would have called it a 'job'; she seemed to be in it for love and for life. When I think of the windows she opened in our lives...and the confidence she gave us...and the inspiration. She turned us on to learning and to life. She not only made us want to do things; she showed us that we could do things. Most of my elementary teachers were like that."

She continued. "It's funny, you know, now that I'm in university, some of my friends go back to visit their old high-school teachers, and that's OK, but me - I look up Mrs. Hallyburton and every time I see her, I thank her. I could have been lost in the shuffle, but she made sure I wasn't. None of us were."

You know, we pay elementary teachers to teach and think that it's a bonus if they inspire; the more I think about priorities, however, the more I think we've got it backwards.

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