A New Role Model

Jimmy Kelly ended up taking summer classes. This is where he would meet his third grade teacher, Ms. Gardner. He was taught to respect his elders, and he would never, never use their first name under any circumstances. This was a No-No during the sixties.

Unlike Mrs. Crabtree, this teacher, saw in Jimmy Kelly some potential. He would not make the honor role, but he did manage to maintain a C average in her classes. There were four areas he excelled at in her classes: Bible, Drama, Writing, and Spelling.

Little did he know, and she never would really understand, that he would remember her loving kindness the rest of his life. He loved learning from her.

One of the projects for the school year was to make a scrapbook, and she would help him find Bible pictures to put in the scrapbook and Mom Jean would read stories out of the Bible about the pictures, Ms. Gardner would find for him. No one ever really believe in Jimmy before. And this gave him confidence that he never experienced  before.

Before the year ended, there was a reading contest and he placed fourth in the contest. He had read 150 books during the school year. Most of these books were about biographies of famous people like Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson among others.

While he had difficulty in math, his other subjects made up for it, and he found even at a young age that he loved to write. All it took was someone to help him believe in himself and it made a difference in his life.

A teacher, a friend, a pastor, or leader can make a difference in the life of a young person, that that difference can and usually last a life time.

Jimmy which that is what he was called by his foster mother, teachers and friends, would forever be changed by the loving kindness of a teacher. What a person can learn from this, no matter who a person is, no matter what the person has done, everyone can become a hero to someone, and not even know it.

Jimmy never got the chance to tell his teacher the impact she had made in his life. But he would never forget him. In his life, he would hope that he might make a difference in another person’s life at some point.

To Jimmy this teacher was not only a role model, she was an angel sent to him during his third and fourth grades. He was never supposed to achieve beyond her classes; it is man that puts limits on people’s lives, but it is God who reaches down and raises individuals beyond those limitation. God had a plan for Jimmy’s life but he would have to go through many challenges before God could truly use him.