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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For our last 15 minutes or so today, this week is Teacher Appreciation Week. Did you know that? For the end of the show today, we're inviting you now to call in to thank a teacher from your past for something specific or for current parents to shout out a teacher now in your own kid's life. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Current parents, we definitely want to hear from you.

You know the teachers who are out there currently doing the work, will love it if somebody tells them or if you tell them yourself, I was on The Brian Lehrer Show praising you for Teacher Appreciation Week. How would you express your appreciation for one teacher for any one thing in any one of your children's lives? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Or you can go back and you can thank a teacher from any time in your past for something specific because teacher appreciation never really goes away or shouldn't.

212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. I will thank my second-grade teacher, Mrs. Barracks, for not skipping me from second to fourth grade, as I think was under consideration there for a little while. Because I had trouble enough with third grade as it was. Mrs. Barracks, if you're out there, thank you for not skipping me in elementary school, PS209 in Queens from second to fourth grade when you had that option. Who else?

For those of you who've been out of school for a few years and might not keep track of these things. This is Teacher Appreciation Week. It was initially suggested as a day of recognition by the recently mentioned Eleanor Roosevelt, believe it or not, in the 1950s, and so we now set aside a week in May every year to recognize the massive role in almost every case, massively positive role that public school teachers play in our lives.

I guess private school teachers too, really, not to exclude them from teacher appreciation. We find ways to say thank you. We're inviting anyone to call in right now and say thank you to a teacher from the past for yourself, or current teacher who's with one of your kids right now. 212-433-WNYC, and we'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian Lehrer on WNYC on Teacher Appreciation Week. We're going to start taking your calls and texts now with your expressions of appreciation for teachers in your kids' lives right now, and some expressions of appreciation for your own teachers from the past. 212-433-WNYC, and we'll start with Griffin in Brooklyn. Griffin, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Griffin: Hey, Brian. Long time, first time.

Brian Lehrer: Glad you're on.

Griffin: I got almost three-year-old identical twins. They go to the Queen's College Child Development Center for-- they go there while I go to class and they have a great teacher there named Miss Sandra. She's the best.

Brian Lehrer: Is that what she goes by Miss and then her first name?

Griffin: Yes. Miss Sandra.

Brian Lehrer: You want to say one thing about what makes her the best?

Griffin: Oh, she's just so thoughtful and communicative and patient. They love her. Whenever they're not at school, they say they miss her and they want to see her. It's just gives you the good feeling.

Brian Lehrer: You're not even jealous when they say they miss her and they want to see her when they're around you?

Griffin: No, it makes me feel good. I feel good I send them there.

Brian Lehrer: Griffin, thank you for your first-time call, call again. All right. We started with appreciation for a preschool teacher. How sweet. How about Jerry on Staten Island? You're on WNYC. Hi Jerry.

Jerry: Hi I wanted to appreciate my high school Latin teacher. When I was a junior in high school the advanced Latin class, and the choir were offered at the same period, so she gave up her free period and we sat in the corridor and I had to have 30 lines of the [unintelligible 00:04:37] ready every day.

Brian Lehrer: [chuckles] Thank you very much. Let's see. I think Gina in Flatbush is also going to go back a ways, Gina, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Gina: Thank you, Brian. I want to recognize Mrs. Metta Axelrod, who was my high school stenography teacher in Baldwin Long Island. I was in the class of 1965, which makes me 76 years old. I still remember Mrs. Axelrod because even though I was in a stenography class where many people were preparing to be secretaries at that time, she encouraged me to go to college, and she was the faculty advisor of a service organization [unintelligible 00:05:21] she helped me get a scholarship from the American Association of University Women, and I did go to college. I became a lawyer, and I really gained confidence from her, confidence in me. She is in heaven, and I hope she hears this. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: That was a wonderful shout-out. Thank you very much. Catherine in Westchester, you're on WNYC. Hello, Catherine?

Catherine: Hi. I wanted to shout out Ms. Seabert at PS 102 in Harlem. That is my twin sister. She is a kindergarten teacher and she is dealing with a big classroom full of a lot of kids. A lot of them need additional support. She's not necessarily getting that support, but she's doing her best and she's doing it all while she's getting her master's degree. I'm really proud of her and I wanted to give her a shout-out today.

Brian Lehrer: Wonderful. Thank you very much. Here's one in a text message. Listener writes, "I'd like to shout out Mr. Orlowski, teacher, and academic decathlon coach who introduced me to WNYC and NPR." It's because of all the academic decathlon coverage that we do on the station, obviously. How about, let's see, Emily in Nyack, who's going to look back? Emily, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Emily: Hi. I want to shout out Mr. [unintelligible 00:06:48] who is my ninth-grade English teacher. One day my friend Michelle Foreman and I went to him and said, "We think we can teach Pride and Prejudice as well as you can. Will you let us teach the class?" He did, and both of us went on to become high school English teachers, and I have a PhD in Education and I'm now a Professor of Education, and I credit that incredible moment of student-centered creativity for letting me discover my inner teacher.

Brian Lehrer: That is awesome. If you want to inspire some of our listeners right now to actually read Pride and Prejudice, can you do it in a line?

Emily: Oh wow. I can't.

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I was better at that in ninth grade than I am now, but it's an amazing book and still my favorite novel.

Brian Lehrer: Emily, thank you very much. Listener writes, "My nine-year-old daughter who was home sick today says that her teachers, Ms. Lewis and Ms. Ferrara are "just amazing and make me love school." I wish they posted what school that was, but I guess your nine-year-old daughter is listening. Hello nine-year-old daughter. Your presence has just made its radio debut and credit to the parents for writing like a journalist, or whatever parent wrote this for writing Ms. Lewis and Ms. Ferrara, and then putting the daughter's words in quote, "just amazing and make me love school," so the exact quote. Brian in Monmouth County, you're on WNYC. Hi Brian.

Brian: Hi. First-time caller. Hey, I want to reach out and shout out to my daughter Susan, who has a master's degree and a certificate from Harvard, and she worked very, very hard and extra hard during COVID. She read to the students at night over the computer and also visited them. Went around to each house and visited them, and I thought in a tough time, she did a great job.

Brian Lehrer: That's great, Brian. Thank you very, very much. A number of people are taking the opportunity to shout out teachers who are not necessarily their kids' teachers right now, but who they know personally. One writes, "I want to thank my best friend Meg Pitts back in Richmond, California. She was the one who told me that she had done her teacher training back in my hometown school district and that if I moved back there, my kids would get the accommodations that they'd so desperately needed.

I told her there was no way, but she was right. She's the most dedicated, empathetic, educational professional I have ever known, so that's very, very sweet." Let's see. Here's Betsy in Manhattan who might be a ringer because she says she's a retired public school teacher herself. Betsy, on WNYC, thank you for calling in.

Betsy Harris: Am I the Betsy?

Brian Lehrer: Yes, you Betsy. Hi there.

Betsy Harris: Oh, okay. Hi. My name is Betsy Harris and I'm a retired public school teacher in Manhattan. As I said to your screener, I wanted to mention a person whom I consider the only genius that I have ever met in education. She was my biology teacher in high school, in a place called Ocala, Florida in the central part of the state where many UFTers have retired to that area now. I had her as a teacher of biology but later she became a full-time college counselor in the local high school, and she was known all over the state of Florida for her work with education.

Brian Lehrer: Can you say one thing that made her an educational genius?

Betsy Harris: Made her such a genius?

Brian Lehrer: Yes.

Betsy Harris: She was written up in this local weekly newspaper and I'm quoting two things that she said, which describes what her concept of college counseling was, I'm not looking at the article but this is what I recall her saying. "A successful college counselor with a young person is one in which I say nothing." She also said parents are not allowed into these conferences, and I think that pretty much says it all. It is important is that she was open to other options besides college at all. For you it might be college, for someone else--

Brian Lehrer: Really sounds like really listen to the student, I get it. Betsy thank you so much, that's wonderful. Nicole in West Orange, you are on WNYC. By the way, Betsy was a retired teacher thanking that teacher. I guess there's no law against teachers thanking other teachers, right? Nicole in West Orange you are WNYC. Hello.

Nicole: Hello. Another teacher thanking some teachers. I'm thanking my sixth-grade twin daughters, teacher is Ms. Eisen, Ms. Feralla, and Ms. Kaiser who just put on a spring musical of Matilda this weekend. My daughters were in the stage crew and had the most incredible time being part of something, and volunteering and just working with these teachers. They guided all these kids who were silly and talked a lot and I'm sure made them crazy as sixth graders do.

They really changed some people's lives, and all week my daughters have been saying how much they miss drama club, and what an incredible experience this was.

Brian Lehrer: What makes a great teacher? You're going to get the last word on the show in 15, 20 seconds if you can say as a teacher yourself and somebody who appreciates other good teachers, what would be the preamble to the great teacher constitution?

Nicole: Listening and being open to learning the entire time that you're an educator.

Brian Lehrer: Beautiful. Nicole, thank you very much. All right, so ends our Teacher Appreciation week call-in. Thank you, teachers. Thank you, students. Thank you, current parents. Thank you former students. Thank you retired teachers and everyone else. Teachers, yes they said in the financial crisis, Wall Street tanked the economy but everybody blamed the teachers, remember that? Teachers wherever you are, thank you.

That's the Brian Lehrer show for today. Produced by MaryEileen Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Srna, Carl Boisrond, and Esperanza Rosenbaum plus Brianna Brady. Today, Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz at the audio control. Stay tuned for All Of It.

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