Dear Teacher,
There are 22 students assigned to your classroom. They will be a jumbled mess of unsure little ones new to you and new to the school. There will be paperwork, attendance, and 2200 forms you must send home and then track as they are returned in various orders and conditions. Amid all this chaos, I dare–no, I must–make yet another request of you: please love my son.
He may not seem like he can sit still. And his attention span is microscopic. But I have seen him sit and wait patiently for me to finish my work more times than I want to admit. I have watched him patiently teach his younger sister how to build a Lego tower. Please love my son and see his potential.
I have spent hours teaching him his colors, shapes, numbers, letters, and sounds. He knows my phone number and he knows the names of the animals at the zoo. He loves the experiments at the Children’s Museum and the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum. He knows how to read. But there are so many things I cannot teach him at home: how to cooperate in stations with a room full of strangers, how to make friends on the playground without his mom there to reassure him, how to handle it when another child is mean to him and he can’t run to his mom to make it better. For these, my son needs you. He needs you to love him enough to allow him to learn from his mistakes and keep trying. Please love my son through his social challenges.
My son may seem tough–it’s from his dad’s side of the family. But his big heart feels deeply. He is not vindictive or begrudging. But he does have a short fuse. We have worked for years on ways to feel anger and release it without hurting someone else. Please hear him, even when his actions are wrong. Please don’t exempt him from the consequences of his actions. But please recognize that there are always two sides to every story. Please love my son enough to listen to what he is saying even when he can’t fully verbalize it.
To you this boy may be just another boy amid the 21 other students demanding your patience and attention and time. He may frustrate you regularly with his overabundance of energy and volume. I get it. But I beg you to love him anyway. Please see his innocence, his soft heart, and his willingness to try again and please help me mold him into the man he is destined to become. I am devoting my entire life to his success, please support me for these 10 months with my life’s work.
Please, dear teacher, love my son.
This made my heart melt !!!
I cried. Thanks alot! 😉
What a sweet letter! It reminds me how important our children and every other child is. It takes a village to help a mother mold her child into the amazing person her son or daughter will be! And yet how scary it can be to send them out into the world to learn from the highs and lows, triumphs and fails that they will each experience in their own unique way. We have done well so far, and so will they!
Nailed it!
I remember well how sad I felt to send my innocent children off to school. I knew they needed that opportunity to grow and learn things without me, but it was scary. I’m Thankful for the many teachers who helped you all grow into such wonderful adults!
All 3 of my kids are in school and it’s been really difficult. It’s also been wonderful to watch my kids interact with their teachers and to see how much they really care. (hugs)
Thanks so much. I don’t know I struggle every time! It is really tough to feel like you are sending your sweet baby out into the world.
What a heart warming letter you wrote! I love this.. I cried too. You’ve inspired a lot of us with your blog. Love you and keep it up.
Thanks! 😘