Do It Now

Do it before it is too late.

Educators are a wonderful group of people and very important to society. As I reflect on my years in education as a student, parent, teacher, administrator, and college professor I have one regret.

I was not the easiest student to teach. I was not focused on academics. However, I really enjoyed the social aspect of school, especially in grades 1-12. I’m sure I made it challenging for my teachers to come to work some days.

When I was in high school my father asked me what I wanted to do the rest of my life. My father was a farmer and as far back as I can remember I had chores to do. One chore was cleaning out the manure pit. Now as you can imagine this was not one of my favorite things to do. It did not take me long to decide that maybe I should apply to Slippery Rock College. I was somewhat surprised when I was accepted. So were Mon and Dad.

In the beginning it was a struggle. My first semester I managed to be placed on academic probation. I thought oh no back to the farm. Long story short, I was able to turn things around and figured out what my public education teachers had taught me and my college professors continued with the same expectations.

I do have one regret and that is I did not tell this wonderful group of educators what a tremendous job they did for this farm boy. My regret is that I did not tell them how much I came to appreciate them and all they did for me and my friends. The best I can now do is say THANK YOU—Mr. Schweinberg. Mr. Anderson, Mrs. North, Mrs. Wiley, Mr. Hill, Mr. Timm, Mr. Watson, Mrs. Fisher, Mr. Hasson, Mr. Kost, Mr. Tedamanza. Mr. Bakewell, Miss Bunny, Mrs, McConnell, Mrs. McCrum, Dr. Ball, Dr. Birdsell and many others.

My advice to you is if you have the same appreciation for the educators that helped you get where you are today—don’t wait to say nice things about them when they are gone—tell them NOW!!