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| Mrs. Gwinn |
Mrs. Gwinn
It has been said “A teacher can make or break a child.” I have found this to be very true. In the sixth grade, I had a teacher that made me a better person and I am grateful to her for it. Her name was Mrs. Gwinn. She gave one hundred percent of herself to her students and she expected every ounce back from her students. Mrs. Gwinn was tall and stout with shiny black hair that cascaded down past her shoulders and ebony skin that was always clean and pure. I went to that school for seven years and never once do I remember her wearing pants. She was always a lady and carried herself with dignity and pride.
I remember the first day of school that year. I rounded the corner and sped down the hallway to her classroom. Mrs. Gwinn was positioned in front of the door and greeted each student as they walked past her. “Good morning, Crystal” she said warmly. I mumbled back and found my seat. She waited until everyone was seated and then took her place in front of the blackboard. “Welcome to the sixth grade” she said. “Some people call me The Witch….” A witch? I thought to myself, puzzled. Mrs. Gwinn hardly fit the picture of a witch. Dressed in a sky blue dress and delicate gold earrings, Mrs. Gwinn looked like perfection to me. But what did I know? After all, I was only a sixth grader.
Throughout the year, I was to learn a lot from Mrs. Gwinn. Not all of it came from a textbook either. She taught us about culture. In fact, she started each day by asking the same question. “What’s going on in our world, today?” We would then discuss current events that were happening around us. No teacher had ever interested me in culture before. But Mrs. Gwinn made sure we were interested in culture. In fact, she expected it.
She taught us about respect, for her and each other. No one was to get treated poorly in her classroom. Any wrong choices on our part were corrected immediately. There was the time that one of classmates lost his grandfather and many of the other kids were making fun of him and his grief. Mrs. Gwinn promptly set the record straight. That kind of behavior would not be tolerated in her classroom. The behavior instantly stopped.
Probably, the most important lesson that Mrs. Gwinn taught us was to respect ourselves. She saw each of us as an individual and we were all treated like respectable human beings. I recall when the art teacher made less than favorable remarks about our artwork. Mrs. Gwinn overheard him and stormed at him. “ Don’t ever tell my students what they can’t do! They can do anything they set their minds to!” After he left, she taught us what would be many of her life lessons. She taught us the importance of believing in our peers and ourselves and that it did not matter what others thought as long as we did our best.
Nowadays, there are not enough teachers like Mrs. Gwinn. Sports and tax levies are more important than the satisfaction of teaching another human being. Salaries are put before morals. And the love of the almighty dollar has overcome the love of self-worth. Mrs. Gwinn loved her job. In the early eighties, when many teachers went on strike, Mrs. Gwinn stayed in the classroom. When asked why, she stated “ Someone has to teach these children. They can’t learn by themselves.” To me, that speaks volumes. Mrs. Gwinn continued teaching after I left and later became a principal. She is now retired. I hope she has a nice retirement because she is one of the few teachers who inspired me and valued me as a person, not just a paycheck.
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Posted by crydun2004 on 2009-11-03 17:47:58 | Rating: | Views: 8
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