computerdisc-l: Fwd

[Robert <rbarnard1@excite.com>]

>                        You Want Heroes? 
>                         by Frosty Troy 
> 
> "Where are the heroes of today?" a radio talk show host thundered. 
> He blames society's shortcomings on education. Too many people 
> are looking for heroes in all the wrong places.  Movie stars and rock 
> musicians, athletes and models aren't heroes, they're celebrities. 
> 
> Heroes abound in schools, a fact that doesn't make the news. 
> There is no precedent for the level of violence, drugs, broken homes, 
child 
> abuse, and crime in today's America.  Education didn't create these 
problems 
> but deals with them every day. 
> 
> You want heroes? 
> 
> Consider Dave Sanders, the school teacher shot to death while trying 
> to shield his students from two Neo-Nazi youth on a bombing and shooting 
> rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.  Sanders gave his

> life, along with 12 students, but other less heralded heroes survived the 
> Colorado blood bath. 
> 
> You want heroes? 
> 
> Jane Smith, a Fayetteville, N.C., teacher, was moved by the plight of 
> one of her students, a boy dying for want of a kidney transplant. So this 
> pretty white woman told the family of this handsome 14-year old black boy 
> that he would give him one of her kidneys.  And she did.   When they 
> subsequently appeared together hugging on the Today Show, even tough 
little 
> Katie Couric was near tears. 
> 
> You want heroes? 
> 
> Doris Dillon dreamed all her life of being a teacher.  She not only 
> made it, she was one of those wondrous teachers who could wring the best 
out 
> of every single child.  One of her fellow teachers in San  Jose, Calif., 
> said  "she could teach a rock to read."  Suddenly she was stricken with 
Lou 
> Gehrig's Disease, which is always fatal, usually with five years.  She 
asked 
> to stay on the job-and did.  When her voice was affected she communicated 
by 
> computer.  Did she go home?  She is running two elementary school 
libraries. 
> When the disease was diagnosed, she wrote the staff and all the families 
> that she had one last lesson to teach -- that dying is part of living. Her

> colleagues named her Teacher of the Year. 
> 
> You want heroes? 
> 
> Bob House, a teacher in Georgia tried out for Who Wants to be a 
> Millionaire..  After he won the million dollars, a network film  crew 
> wanted to follow up to see how it had impacted his life.  New cars? Big 
new 
> house?  Instead, they found both Bob House and his wife still teaching. 
> They explained that it was what they had always wanted to do with their 
> lives and that would not change.  The community was both stunned and 
> gratified. 
> 
> You want heroes? 
> 
> Last year the average school teacher spent $468 of their own money for 
> student necessities -- workbooks, pencils -- supplies kids had to have but

> could not afford.  That's a lot of money from the pockets of the most 
poorly 
> paid teachers in the industrial world. 
> 
> Schools don't teach values?  The critics are dead wrong. 
> Wducation provides more Sunday school teachers than any other profession. 
> The average teacher works more hours in nine months than the average 
40-hour 
>   employee does in a year. 
> 
> You want heroes? 
> 
> For millions of kids, the hug they get from a teacher is the only hug 
> they will get that day because the nation is living through the worst 
> parenting in history.  Many have never been taken to church ou synagogue 
in 
> their lives. 
> 
> A Michigan principal moved me to tears with the story of her attempt 
> to rescue a badly abused little boy who doted on a stuffed animal on her 
> desk -- one that said "I love you!"  He said he'd never been told that at 
> home. 
> 
> This is a constant in today's society-two million unwanted, unloved, 
> abused children in our schools. 
> 
> You want heroes? 
> 
> Visit any special education class and watch the miracle of personal 
> interaction, a job so difficult that fellow teachers are awed by the 
> dedication they witness. There is a sentence from an unnamed source 
> which says, "We have been so anxious to give our children 
> what we didn't have that we have neglected to give them what we did 
> have." 
> 
> What is it that our kids really need?  What do they really want? 
> Math, science, history and social studies are important, but children 
> need love, confidence, encouragement, someone to talk to, someone to 
listen, 
> standards to live by.  Teachers provide upright examples, the faith and 
> assurance of  responsible people. 






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