This past week, I ran into my children’s preschool teacher, Stephanie Ziman at the Greater Baltimore JCC.

It had probably been close to 14 years.

We hugged, smiled, caught up for a moment, and then she asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks:

Monkey is the name of my youngest child’s stuffed animal.

And honestly, it hit me emotionally.

Fourteen years later, she still remembered not just my children, but the name of the stuffed animal that mattered.

That’s what teaching really is.

It’s easy during Teacher Appreciation Week to reduce appreciation to gift cards, coffee, flowers, and social media posts. Those things are kind and meaningful. But this moment reminded me that true appreciation means understanding the role teachers actually play in our lives.

Teachers do not simply........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)