Teachers have a lasting influence

Local school administrators and board members continue to review detailed plans on how to safely open their brick-and-mortar facilities to teachers and students on Aug. 24 or Aug. 26.

But, they are also keeping an eye on how best to proceed with virtual classes should they become necessary due to the uncertainties of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

The general consensus is that a return to some form of educational routine is very important — academically and socially — to young people and also to the dedicated teachers, who more than any of us, understand how vital learning is to ensure that individuals acquire new skills and become emotionally equipped to take on the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Just as our front-line health care workers are critical to society’s well-being, good teachers are likewise heroes and heroines who have always sacrificed a great deal in the best interests of the pupils who look to them for guidance and assurance.

Where would any of us be without the highly committed educators who taught us to read and write, who showed us how to behave, who inspired us to consider our futures and then worked so very hard to help us attain those personal goals?

To this day, I give thanks for my Hot Springs High School English teachers, Elizabeth Housley and Lura Browne, who shared my love of language and urged me to consider a career in journalism. I will always be grateful to my Latin teacher, Elizabeth Buck, who instilled in me the value of words and their origin and likewise encouraged me to go to a college that could best prepare me well for my chosen field.

And surely, I could not have made it through the rigors of the University of Missouri School of Journalism were it not for the tutelage of G. Thomas Duffy, the erudite and legendary professor who taught feature writing and whose sometimes gruff facade belied his deep-down concern for all of us collegians.

It was from Duffy that I finally grasped the knowledge that flowery writing and lengthy articles do not for a great work make and that there is a real art in creating photo captions.

Many of my friends and acquaintances are or were teachers and I admire them all for their patience, persistence and professionalism. Behind every child’s success, there is a classroom mentor who helps him or her achieve and grow into a purposeful adult.

Behind every high school or college graduate or technical program diplomate, there is a compelling and competent man or woman who truly does make a difference in the lives of so many of our loved ones.

We can never thank teachers enough for what they do and for what they mean to the betterment of our community, state, country and world.

What teachers do every day stays with us always.