Ability of Teachers to Profoundly Impact Lives of Individual Children

Once children reach school age, they start spending more time with their teachers than with their parents. This means that teachers aren’t just imparting an education; they’re affecting the emotional, intellectual, and social development of each student they encounter. The poet William Butler Yeats once said, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” And, indeed, by giving kids the knowledge and skills they need to succeed as adults, by urging them to pursue their dreams, and by impressing on them the joy that comes from a lifetime of learning, teachers can be virtually limitless in their capacity to touch lives. And considering that on average teachers affect 3,000 kids over the course of their careers, the ripple effect of even a single teacher’s impact can be astounding.