The Teacher Who Changed My Life

I attended a small rural high school in a class with 64 members. From the 1940s to the 1980s, Mrs. B taught English. Several years after she retired, Mrs. B brought her car in to be serviced at the Ford dealership where I was service manager. Later, the dealer’s wife told me that Mrs. B had told her that of all the students she’d had over all those years, I was the one she would have most liked to have killed. Coming from her, I considered it an honor and a distinction! —Gene gausman Milford, Nebraska I was in fourth grade and I hated reading. I couldn’t read and was always in the lowest reading groups. But Mrs. Dorman would read to the class after lunch. We could lie down and just listen. In time, she taught me to read and to love books, which saved me from a troubling childhood. I went on to teach first grade, and after lunch I would always read to my class. Thank you, Mrs. Dorman. —Brian tooley Hemet, California