Thank your teachers today!

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Today is National Teacher Appreciation Day.

I want to thank all of my teachers for everything they taught me.
I especially want to thank Mrs. Travis.

Mrs. Travis was a third grade teacher at School 26 in Iselin for a lot of years. For a while she also taught Gifted and Talented; I think she helped start the gifted and talented program. I also think she was one of the first computer teachers in Woodbridge. She was definitely one of the first people I knew who had a computer and computer games, back when computers were huge and the games were just word puzzles and rectangle blocks. BEFORE PONG. Yup, that long ago. Mrs. Travis was a lovely lady and my next door neighbor.

I was never actually in Mrs. Travis' class, but she was still one of my most important teachers. As my neighbor, she re-emphasized a lot of the lessons my parents were trying to teach me. Some of the things Mrs. Travis taught me:

1. Splinters only hurt for a minute when you take them out, and they feel much better as soon as you get an ice pop.
2. Books are a lot of fun. You can pretty much find out anything from a book.
3. Jigsaw puzzles are great. They are even more challenging and fun if you don't look at the box. Good luck with that.
4. Legos are great too. They aren't just for boys, girls can build things.
5. All children are smart.
6. Yes, you are going to college. The only question is WHERE are you going, and what are you going to major in?
7. Your mother is right, too much eyeshadow is tacky on a 15 year old.
8. Computers are fun. They aren't that complicated that you can't figure them out.
9. Good neighbors are dependable friends, but not involved in your business if you don't ask them to be.
10. Babies are fragile, but they aren't made of cotton candy. Don't worry, he's fine. They just cry sometimes, you aren't doing anything wrong.
11. DON'T BUY ME ANYTHING, because I DON'T NEED ANYTHING!
12. That rash looks a lot like chicken pox.
13. Education is very important. It's never too late to learn something new!
14. Life is short.

I've had a lot of great teachers in my life, but I miss Mrs. Travis the most.
She passed away recently. She was very private, I don't even think an obituary was published.

So, if you have a great teacher, tell them how much you appreciate them TODAY!