Kriminy, gadzooks and little fishes, folks! Granted, some teachers have inspired great interest in reading, history, math, geography ... even personal hygiene ... but "HEROES" ??? Isn't that carrying things just a bit TOO far??? I beg you to take a just a brief look at the other side of the spectrum.

Unlike yourselves, I am a product of the post-war era (1945-1955)--meaning, when I was 8, WWII had just ended and a highly exhuberant Harry S. Truman was the newest occupant of the White House. But, in 2007, there are those of you who might look upon those days as The Dark Ages in American education ... a time when the teachers had pretty much their own way in the classroom -- in fact, the last generation that strictly obeyed their dictates, as well as those of their parents ... that is, of course, unless you were a "pre-rock-'n-roll rebel" LIKE YOURS TRULY. It was, I assure you, a most frustrating time for those of us who sought a mere modicum of respect? ... appreciation? ... NO! simple RECOGNITION for what we felt we had to offer.

You mention that, at age forty-something, you can well recall your elementary school teachers and especially the kindness with which they treated you. I am now seventy-something, and I can well recall the seemingly endless rebuke and public ridicule to which I was subjected, not to mention an extremely cold clothes closet during mid-winter in Philadelphia. What's worse, until I went on to junior high school (1951), I was barred from participating in any school activities ... as if there were a conspiracy of the teachers against me, or, worse yet, if Senator McCarthy had cited me as a 14-year-old Communist collaborator! As I learned later, it was neither of these; it was a simple matter of the so-called "teachers" not giving a damn about my welfare or how I might have felt about anything. Ah yes .... "the good, old days"! Whenever I hear some other 70-year-old malcontent usher that phrase, I feel like spitting in his eye and drowning the bastard!

Notwithstanding, I managed to go through high school and on to college, and there is where I encountered my share of dedicated instructors from whom I learned which side is up. It would interest you, I am certain, to hear that the final years of my professional life were spent in the rôle of TEACHER!!!! Was I successful? You bet I was! Do I owe anything to my elementary school teachers? HELL NO! Therefore, my dear colleagues, I think you were just plain lucky ... or simply from another generation.

As for HEROES ... I have learned (the hard way, if you will), that the true hero is he/she who can master those elements of life which have been mistakenly categorized as impossible, through the processes of self-realization and/or self-training in the crowded professional marketplace. In essence, we are our own heroes. Amen.