Teachers: It’s Always About the Connection

“Perhaps you could come over one afternoon, and we could sit here and speak French?” Ms. Lenard suggested as I got up to leave almost four hours later. And that’s when I realized something about her and, really, about all great teachers: It’s always about the connection. For that reason, “Jeunes Voix” did for me what textbooks seldom achieve: It made me want to learn. It reached me by coming to me instead of asking me to go to it.

Upon leaving, I sheepishly asked Ms. Lenard to sign my aging copy of “Jeunes Voix.” She obliged, signing the page opposite a portrait of Christine. “Thank you, Courtney, for keeping both Christine & me alive and feeling loved. Yvone.”
-Courtney Lichterman

Courtney Lichterman is a freelance travel writer.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/education/edlife/christine-eustrade-french-lesson.html