The Gift of a Teacher

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada and I sure do respect a good teacher! 

We all should, given this is Teacher Appreciation Week, right? And when I think of not just good, but great teachers, I think of Mrs. Pace who taught honors English, a special class for gifted students at West Carrollton Middle School. Now, I learned about Mrs. Pace from Emily Shanahan. She’s my friend; she’s a bright young woman who happens to be in a wheelchair due to her cerebral palsy. Anyway, when Emily was 11 years old, she qualified for honors English with Mrs. Pace. Emily, a wheelchair user, was in that class for two hours a day, Monday through Friday, and she got to know her teacher very well. She loved that Mrs. Pace was a Christian, but she was also quite intense with high standards. Emily told me, “Joni, I recall on the first day of 6th grade, at 8:00 in the morning, instead of a ‘Welcome to middle school, everyone,’ Mrs. Pace stood at the front of the class and announced, ‘My goal is not to prepare you for high school, but for college! At the end of the school year you will write a college-freshman-level research paper.’” Well, Emily sat there, thinking, “That’s great! But hey, can I just get used to middle school first?! I don’t even know where the cafeteria is!” 

But here’s the thing. Because of her wheelchair, Emily did not want Mrs. Pace to treat her any differently than the other students. Apparently, there was an infamous moment between the two of them. Everyone in the class was called on to do preposition drills out loud; each student was required to recite 50 common prepositions in alphabetical order, from memory. Whereas Mrs. Pace had been gracious, even lenient with Emily’s classmates, when dear Emily stumbled in her recitation, her teacher gently rebuked her, “Emily, you’ve had ten days to memorize this list! You should know your prepositions.” In a very uncharacteristic move, my friend Emily raised her voice and yelled, “Mrs. Pace! You’re not being fair! You’re supposed to treat me like all the other kids, but you expect more out of me than others and I am sick of it!” Mrs. Pace looked at her calmly and said, “Emily, I would like to see you in the hallway please.” Emily thought she was being marched to the principal’s office.  

But once they got in the hallway, Mrs. Pace knelt down in front of Emily’s wheelchair and said, “Emily, you’re right. I do push you; I do expect more out of you than the others. It’s because I love you and I know you can do it. I push you because the world is going to expect more out of you and I want you to meet those standards.” Emily was speechless, “You love me?! You hardly know me!” But then Mrs. Pace explained, “I love you, Emily, because God loves you.” And after that, Emily apologized and was gently warned that if she talked back again, she would be sent to detention. 

Okay, fast-forward this story, and Emily Shanahan has completed her college degree and has earned her Master’s. She is far exceeding what the world might expect of a young woman with cerebral palsy in a wheelchair. Oh, and if you’d like to learn more about Emily, I’ve put a link to her website at joniradio.org. And please know, that she and Mrs. Pace to this day text each other recommendations on favorite books. Proverbs 16 says that “sweetness of the lips increases learning.” And that’s what makes good teachers great teachers – just like Mrs. Pace. It’s a heartwarming story you can pass on to any educator that you know on this Teacher Appreciation Week!  

© Joni and Friends