This week’s post comes from my own personal experience. – Toni
As a child I was happy, confident and thought I was fairly intelligent. Nothing really bothered me and I thought everybody was as nice as the people around me. On my first day of kindergarten, my mother dropped me off at school, and I rode the bus home. I sat at a table with five other students. We learned important things any kindergartener should know. After just a few days into my educational career, my five-year-old mind realized I had been sheltered from the harshness of this world.
The next two years proved to be quite difficult for me. My teachers did not seem to understand my outgoing nature and I was often scolded for anything imaginable: talking, being happy, being a kid. I was also led to believe that I was not very smart. I used to sit in my reading group in both kindergarten and first grade being absolutely bored. Yet I was never allowed to be in the Bluebird group, the smart reading group. I had to be a Robin, but at least I was not in the Sparrows. By the end of first grade, the stress of the social difficulties and the feeling of intellectual defeat caused me to miss a lot of school and to even lose a lot of hair.
Through the summer I started feeling better and even started getting my hair back. When I registered for second grade I was told my teacher was new to the school. I was very excited about getting the new teacher, Mrs. Rita Peat, and on my first day I could tell we were going to get along. When it was time to divide up for reading groups, she told me I had been assigned to the middle reading group. I took a shot and told her that I had always been bored with the middle group. She immediately switched me. I was stunned. A teacher listened to me.
Mrs. Peat did not stop there. Since I had never been challenged, I was not trying in other subjects. One day she noticed I still used my fingers to do my math facts. She contacted my parents, told them she thought I could do better and sent me home with a stack of practice tests. Because she had confidence in me for reading I did not want to disappoint her with math. I worked very hard and before long there were only two students doing better than me.
At the end of the first semester, my parents had the chance to take a short trip to New York for my father’s work. They called Mrs. Peat to see if I could miss school and go with them. She said that I was such a good student, I could afford to miss school for this experience. I had the time of my life during that trip and constantly kept thinking about how I could go because I was smart.
Mrs. Peat changed my life. After that year I worked hard in school and knew I was a smart kid. I believe if she had not encouraged me, I would have just been an average student. I would have lacked the confidence to try new things. I would have settled for mediocrity.
I have thought of Mrs. Peat many times since the second grade and her confidence in me. It has inspired me to take on new challenges and not be influenced by the opinions of others. Any new endeavor I have tried, including this blog, have been inspired because of Mrs. Peat’s gift to me all those years ago.
Toni Deckers
Artist/Designer
Creator of the Amazing Love Necklace
