August 15, 2001
Esther Henken first worked in our elementary school as a
long-term substitute teacher. She would
take over the classroom for a teacher who was going to be out for a long period
of time. And it seemed that in every
classroom she took over there would be one student who was turned off to
learning. And in a few weeks it seemed
that Esther would somehow bring that turned off student back to life. Esther continued to do this so frequently
that I began to call her Lazarus because she was so effective with bringing
those turned off students back from the dead.
Esther eventually became a permanent teacher in our school
and continued to do a great job in the classroom with her kids. In our school the kids had snack time at
10:30 in the morning and every morning my interns and I would visit the classrooms to
hang out with the kids and the teachers.
And I always looked forward to visiting in Esther’s classroom.
As soon as my intern and I would step into her classroom we
would be acknowledged. Esther had a
booming voice and she would announce, “Mr. McGurn is here and his intern,
Robin, is also here.” And all the kids
would smile at us and we would feel so welcome.
The kids would take their cue from their teacher and they would
also go out of their way to talk with us and hang out with us. Esther’s kids learned a lot about reading
and writing during the year and they also learned a lot about getting along
with people.
Esther did have a booming voice. And a lot of people are nervous about using loud voices. And there is still a lot of shushing going around. Well, Esther used her voice to the advantage
of her kids. When I was in her room
she would deliberately turn up her volume and announce to me, “Mr. McGurn,
Heather has written a beautiful story today.
Do you have time to listen to it?”
And all the kids in the room and even people walking down
the corridor would know that Heather had written a beautiful story today. And then Heather would take her beautiful
story to the reading table with a huge smile on her face and read the story to me.
When a person feels verbally hurt by words it usually has
little to do with the volume of the words.
If someone yells at you that, “You are the greatest person I have ever
known!” most people would not tell the speaker to turn down the volume. I think many of us would like to have the
volume of that that message turned up.
But if somebody whispers in your ear that, “You are a dirty
rotten….” I think you would feel really hurt, even though there was very little
volume. It usually is not the volume of
the message that hurts us. It usually
is the spirit of the message that hurts.
After a few years in our school, Esther and I became buddies. I would stop in her classroom before school and
we would chat about our own kids. Esther’s
kids and my kids were about the same age so we had a lot in common. And one thing we really had in common was
how proud we were of our kids.
I can’t remember either of us complaining about our kids or talking
about the pressures of being a parent. We
kind of accepted the responsibility of being a parent and focused on the
satisfaction and the joy of having great kids.
We would usually take turns in bragging about our kids. We would exchange pictures or report cards
or stories and feel really proud of their achievement. Our kids were so important to us and we
shared that special connection.
I have mentioned Esther’s big voice. She also had a big laugh. When she laughed she put her soul into
it. And when she laughed you just felt
like laughing with her. But the best memory I have of Esther is her
big heart. She really cared for the
kids in her class and made them all feel so special and so valued.
I was very happy when I worked in the schools. And I am really happy now that I have
retired from the schools. But sometimes
I think back to the great people I worked with in the schools—some great kids,
some great parents, some great staff members and some great friends like
Esther.