"Thank You" Tech Teachers

Tom Woodard, Tech 1968

I hope many of you will see this. It comes from the heart and is a result of many real life experiences. I was reminiscing in the Tech website a little bit ago when it occurred to me that I owe you all a debt for which there is only one payment: Thank you. It is all that I have as payment. Appreciation, gratitude, understanding all seem so menial, but it is all I have, especially to those of you who taught me. I have been teaching in the public arena for 20 years. Until I started teaching, it was impossible to understand the issues with which you good people had to deal and the mentality of the students you encountered. After all, I was too much like them. Today's students are likely much worse than those with whom you worked, but nonetheless, we were sometimes unappreciative and painfully obnoxious. Of course, we may have often felt that you were the problem. I am so grateful to you all for putting your foot down and insisting that we learn. You taught us principles of mental discipline that are ongoing. You told us that this would help us later when all we could understand was the now. Who could imagine how Shakespeare could fall into this category and yet I now enjoy reading his works more now than when I was a student. (I just finished Hamlet, again, last week.) I know that teachers today also care, but you were the best and I hope that I have been a tribute to all of you in a most positive way. Please accept my gratitude and undying love for what you tried to do for me because now, at age 57, I understand more clearly.

Thank you and may God bless you all.

Tom Woodard
 

- Tom Woodard, Tech 1968 .  April 21, 2008 . twoodard@itt-tech.edu