Nice to see results of hard work

    Vacation is good. Having been away for nearly a year it was nice to be able to go to a place where I am known. What a comfort this is. As I left to go to England for a Conference on teaching language using Shakespeare it was a pleasure to be recognized at the airport. it must be that half the people remembered me and the other half had not forgotten me. In a way, it was sort of the unofficial 25th reunion party since so many of the persons I met in the ten days I was home had been classmates of mine at some point.     Community is a universal concept. As I am discovering, during my work in Shanghai, it is a universal truth that everyone seeks out a community of some sort at some time in life. As I visited with all my friends, tooled around the various neighborhoods, and talked with various people it was impressive to realize just how far that ‘bunch of rascals’ at Presque Isle High School has gone.
    Today, we count on our honor roll, teachers, ministers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, police officers, soldiers, and ordinary citizens. Little did we know when we were sitting in our classes just where we would or could go. We had the hubris to believe that we owned the world and we still do. But our pursuit of excellence did not spring from wishful thinking.
    Our teachers saw in us a hope for a new future. A chance to follow through on the slogan of the Chamber of Commerce: “Presque Isle is a great place to grow, grow, grow! We have grown and each of us has realized that part of our responsibility is to carry a message out to the world that the small town and its community is worthy of respect.
    But this is not just a characteristic of Presque Isle. It is a characteristic of the community. Our parents stood by us as we discovered the world. Our teachers guided us and encouraged us in their own small way to look forward to what we could do to make it a better place. And our community fought hard to support our fledgling efforts at calling for recognition.
    In China, they have a national teacher’s day. On September 10th, the Chinese celebrate the power and possibilities of teachers. Here, teachers are revered as we revere a great judge, doctor, or lawmaker. Teachers are feted with dinners and gifts, small tokens for the job that we do to give hope to the future. And sitting with my students at a simple dinner it is nice to realize that every person at some point becomes a teacher.
    Yes, it is hard work. I can only shudder at what I put my teachers through in my own efforts to learn. Students are a thirsty and hungry lot. We want to know so much and our impatience to use what we know
can at times seem overwhelming. But in the end it is the continuation of a tradition that goes back further than we know. One generation handing to the next with the fervent prayer that tomorrow will be better.
    I now begin a third year of teaching in a land far away from the rolling hills of Aroostook County. It is a challenge and an honor. How did my teachers ever manage to get one ounce of common sense into me? Something worth celebrating happened those years now so long ago. And though we do not yet have a teachers day of any official status in the U.S., it is nice to see the results of the hard work that my own teachers did to show me what I could do.
    More to come in the following weeks, including: Wildlife in concrete, traffic rules for the moderately perturbed, and holidays in translation.
Orpheus Allison
Shanghai, China
orpheusallison@mac.com