I went to a very small school in Jacksonville that never received any kind of accreditation. Despite this, my First Grade Teacher (she since went on to teach Kindergarten and maintained the same standard) required all of her students to be able to read, unassisted, prior to "graduating" from her class. It was a painful experience that year, but we all learned to read at a relatively high level as well as spelling and grammar.

 

Despite me not being very well read, there is nothing that I cannot read to gain information and that is due to her efforts and unwillingness to let her students fail to live up to a standard.

 

When I entered the Service, I had to wait two months for the waiver to clear which allowed me to enter a technical field without an accredited diploma. People who requested marijuana waivers were granted those within the hour.

 

I did not get a good education by the State's standards, but I graduated from Nuclear Power School, became a Senior-In-Rate Mechanical Operator, and graduated college all due to having that First Grade teacher instill in all of us her standards.

 

I think about her everyday and I hope that every student has a teacher as wonderful as her.

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