Welcome to the KDP

Tonight, I had the honor of being the guest speaker at the induction ceremony, welcoming new members to the National Honors Society of the College of Education, Kappa Delta Pi. I have decided to attach my speech as tonight's blog because I feel that it does an excellent job of explaining why I am here and what my intentions are toward my students.

Future Teachers, Professors and Colleagues,

I stand before you today, reminiscent of the day that I was seated in a similar audience. Just two short years ago, I sat where you are, waiting to become a member of Kappa Delta Pi. I have to admit, I was surprised when I got the call asking me to speak at your induction ceremony. After all, we met before, and the impression I left at our last meeting was hopefully not a good one.

I stood before many of you on a different stage for your orientation. The KDP did a presentation on the expectations of a College of Education Student and I am ashamed to admit, in the skit I played the bad example. I was scantily dressed, rude toward my classmates and disrespectful to my professor. Basically, I was everything you clearly are not. You have been invited to join this crowd today because you are the best of the best. You have proven yourself to be virtuous of the values our organization represents: service, toil, and fidelity to humanity.

Recently, I read an article in the St. Petersburg Times. I would like to take a minute to touch on two things I took away from this article. First, the title… staff writer Jeffrey Solocheck wrote "A tough title to carry: teacher". How true. People say teachers are overworked, underpaid, underappreciated and in my opinion we are often overlooked. Overlooked? Think about it. At how many awards ceremonies do you see the best lead actor thank his first grade teacher for teaching him how to read so he could go on to read and memorize his scripts? So why do we do it? Let me give you an example.

Allow me to tell you about one of my students. For the sake of her privacy, I am going to call her Abby. Abby is labeled what they call Trainable Mentally Handicapped; she also suffers a severe language impairment. Abby could barely talk. She had a voice but was incapable of enunciating, she tried to sign she knew a few letters to fingerspell, but she couldn't spell. When Abby came to me, she was in the third grade, a non reader, who did not know her alphabet without singing it. She could not even identify her numbers 1-10 if they were presented out of sequence. Abby's needs were more profound than what I could do for her in my class, but let me tell you why she made my job worthwhile…

It was the day before Thanksgiving break and we had been working together diligently since the first day of school. On this day, Abby sat down to do some practice drills with one of my assistants, like she had done every day before. This day was different.

Today, Abby got it right! She was so excited that she grabbed the paper, ripping it out of the assistants hand, ran over and stood between me and the group with whom I was working. "I did it!" she screamed. For the first time, probably ever, the child understood.

In this moment and in many moments besides this one, I did not just feel satisfied because my students were learning. I wanted to cry from excitement because I felt the joy that my student was feeling because she had learned! That is why we do it; we do it for the Abby's of this world; We do it for our kids!

The second thing I want to share with you from that article was a quote that resonates in my head. A representative of the teacher's union was critical of the quality of teachers being hired today. Without going into the specifics of what was said or why, I would like respond to the opinion stated. If that PCTA rep was here today, I would tell him "You're wrong!" I would tell him to look around him.

I would say "let me tell you what you see… You are looking at hard working, conscientious, caring teachers. We represent the level of quality by which the standards should be set. We work strenuously (hm hm toil), we provide a great service, educating the future doctors, leaders and teachers of a global society. We are steadfast to the promises we make and to our duties as educators.

As you leave here today, I want to take with you a few words to live by…First when the title teacher becomes a little tough to carry, drag it behind you in your little book cart. Next, always continue to learn.

I've heard many motivational speakers say that "When you're green you're growing and when you're ripe you're rotten." So stay green. Be a leader and set the example. And finally I want to close with a very short poem, written by the wisest man I know…my dad.

Life

by Tom Walden

Life is what you make of it,

So make of it the best.

God helped you through the worst of it.

He'll help you through the rest.

And if you're feeling down a bit

And everyone's being a pest,

Just thank the Lord you're part of it

And Laugh at them in jest.

Thank you and may you have good luck in this adventure on which you have embarked.