Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Anyone?
We all remember the iconic scene from the movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” when the teacher (played by Ben Stein) is having no success trying to get the class to participate. We have all been around those people that might have been really smart but we just didn’t like them much. They didn’t inspire us. They didn’t motivate us. Think of the people that have meant the most to us. Most of the time, it was probably because of how they made us feel.
I remember how I felt about second grade and my teacher.
Mrs. Johnson allowed us to pick out something from the classroom prize box for doing well at reading. I couldn’t tell you a single book that I read that year, but boy do I remember those baseball cards I picked out. She motivated me to become a better reader.
Fast forward a year. I now have a huge collection of sports cards, which all started because a teacher made reading fun. Now I’m a third grader in Mrs. Marco’s class. I find a football card of Chester Marcol, the All-Pro kicker for the Green Bay Packers. On the back of the card, it says that he went to Hillsdale College, which is our local college. I am all excited and tell my teacher. She asks if she can keep my card for a couple of days. I don’t know why but I say “Yes, just please don’t wreck it.”
About three weeks later while we are sitting in class listening to our teacher, we are interrupted by a knock on the classroom door. A man asks, “Is there a boy named Jamy here today?” I raise my hand and he comes over to me and pulls out that football card. Chester Marcol signs it right then and there. My third grade teacher had pulled some strings and got a Pro Bowl football player to come to my class.
I know that I got almost all A’s during my third grade year but all the academics fail in comparison to my memories of my teacher making it possible for an NFL player to sign my card in front of my classmates.
If we want to reach others . . . If we want to make the world a better place, it won’t just be because we are the smartest person in a crowd, at a party, on social media, in the locker room, or classroom (like Ben Stein). It’ll be because we connected with them. We not only filled up their heads, but their hearts as well.
People don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. I bought what my teachers (coaches, parents, and bosses) were selling because I saw how much they cared for me. They didn’t just give me knowledge. They inspired me.
How about us? Are we inspiring anyone? Anyone? Anyone?