One of Many Teachers I Will Not Forget

When I was in second and third grade, I used to be terrified of the day I would be in fourth grade.
If I happened to be out in the hallway during class hours for some reason, I would hear strange and terrible howls coming from that room.
Mr. D, the fourth grade teacher, was tall and broad and loud, and I had a sneaking suspicion that he might eat children.
He certainly seemed to be yelling at them an awful lot.
He would stand outside his room in the mornings, popping antacids like they were candy, and I imagined it upset his stomach a little to devour students whole for their infractions.
But my day came, as I had always feared it would.
On the first day, he demonstrated for us his Tarzan bellow. Being only nine and ten years old, we all laughed hysterically at what a crazy teacher we had.
He had a good sense of humor.
Once, when I groaned over my math homework, he set one of his antacids on my desk and said he thought I needed it more than he did.
There was that twinkle in his eye that told me he was teasing me but, more importantly, that he understood.

I will never forget the time when he had us draw our self-portraits as an art project. I was a shy, awkward kid and didn't think much of myself - I drew a skinny girl with a big nose and large glasses.
Mr. D. refused to accept my drawing.
He marched me over to the mirror over his sink and made me look at my reflection, saying, "Look at this girl - REally LOOK at her! Why, she's beautiful! Don't you notice what pretty eyes she has? And, goodness, that's the best smile I think I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of smiling kids over the years."
My next picture he pronounced "Beautiful!" and every picture I ever drew after that.

He found that I had a knack for writing, and never failed to encourage me to read my brainchildren to the rest of the class.
He did what every good teacher does every day - He encouraged me to see the best in myself and pursue my gifts and talents.

You will never find these objectives in any common core curriculum, you may never see them in any standardized test, but these are the things I took from my fourth grade year that were most valuable to me in my lifetime.