Ms. Safford: The Appreciation

When the students presented their state reports for the class, we would applaud as was the custom in Ms. A's class whenever students presented anything, whether the assignment was any good or not.

This time, though, the teacher would not let us get away with offering vapid praise.

After the student who wrote a report on New York had finished, we clapped. Then Ms. Safford questioned us:

"Why are you clapping? Why is her report so good?"

One of the students then commented that the pictures included in the report were bright and easy to see.

"OK," Ms. Safford continued. "Tell me, did she give good information for the project?"

We all agreed that the New York project had all the required information.

"All right, then, keeping clapping."

I look back on the little event in class. She made us think about our opinions. She wanted us to distinguish between work that was well done and poorly done. She required us to think about what we were saying. It was simply not enough for us to applaud everything that came before the rest of the class.

I also remember one kid, Jerry. He was like gang-banger in training. We were good friends in elementary school, but we had drifted apart at Madrona. He was hanging out with a rougher crowd, it seemed, and he wanted to be kissed by all the girls. He was the type who would keep the girl's lipstick on his cheek just to show off. Still, he could be fun to hang around, sometimes.

In Ms. Safford's class, he put real effort into map-making, one of the projects assigned to us early in the session. He even draw little drawings of mermaids and sunken ships around the little compass. "This is excellent work!" she told him, even during one period, when he had been acting up in class and she told him to move his seat. She did not discriminate against student work just because a student acted up in class.

Then there was me. The work that I had done in the class really impressed her. My report on Virginia was well-received. My map and compass also impressed her. One day, she called me over to her desk while the other students were completing their final assignments.

"The work that you are turning is excellent," she told me, and even though she had said the same thing to Jerry before, I took her seriously, I believe that she meant what she said. What she said to me after that has stayed with me ever since:

"You are going places in life. You have a lot skills, and you can do a lot of things very well. I know that you excel more than your peers, and I can tell you that they will not like it. So you better be prepared for that. But it's up to you."

She was right! I did a lot of things very well, and I have faced much opposition in my life for a job well done. That day, Ms. Safford pointed out to me that a job well done did not depend on what other people said about it, good or bad, or what people thought about you, good or bad. A job well done would stand on its own, regardless of what anyone had to think. She impressed upon that doing well may not make me popular, but that getting the approval of others did not matter. I was going places,  and she told me to go for it, no matter who was booing or cheering me on.

Ms. Safford, you are awesome! I stopped caring what people had to say about her after that day. I looked forward to her class. I looked forward to learning about maps and the fifty states. I liked being in her class, and I liked knowing that I was privileged to learn something so mature and so profound so early in life.