I hated third grade – and especially Mrs. Phillips – even before class started in the fall. Some older kids had told me how mean she was. Being something of a worrier in those days, I fretted all summer about it.

Mrs. Phillips, I discovered, was not mean. But she had high standards. She figured out pretty quickly what my problem with third grade and her was and began a campaign to turn third grade into the best school experience ever.

I was a good student, so she encouraged me at every turn. After two months, she took me to the library one day and said, “third grade books are too easy for you. Let’s find something that will challenge you.” By the end of the year, I had read all of the fourth grade level books and was starting on fifth grade reading material.

I’m sure I was not the only kid in the class that year that got this kind of attention. But it sure felt like I had been singled out. After that I loved school and learned not to listen to the opinions of others but to make up my own mind.

Here’s to Mrs. Phillips and all the teachers like her who have made such a difference in kids’ lives.