Teacher

Posted on the 6S Social Network 11Feb10

He was out of place at this kind of party from the start, but she was a close friend and had asked him, so he would do his best to put on a smile and mingle with the shifty-eyed patrons. He stood in a semi-circle of men of varying age with varying degrees of facial hair as they talked shop, each of the men elegantly and politely stating that their job, their life, was more important than the next. As he tilted his expensive flute filled with expensive champagne up to his lips, one of the men seemed to notice him for the first time and asked him to what profession does he serve. He cleared his throat and replied "I'm a teacher at the public middle school". As the semi-circle gained it's composure, the inquisitor asked him what a middle-school teacher made; the semi-circle was silent, he had the floor. "A middle-school teacher makes do with what he is provided, and he stretches it as far as it will go, then he makes his personal budget razor thin in order that none of his kids ever goes without, then he gives a piece of his soul to each and every student to let them know that no matter what happens, they are loved; what I make, sir, is a difference."

-I wish I could claim that this was an original concept, but I can't. I heard the premise of this many years ago from somewhere, I wish I could remember where, and it stuck with me.