“What nobler employment,” said philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero, “or more valuable to the state, than that of the man who instructs the rising generation.”  
 
A teacher’s indelible mark on our children and society was known in Cicero’s time two thousand years ago and even more so today.  And yet the school day can turn into weeks, melt into months and fade into years before we fully understand the impact a teacher has on our lives or the lives of our children.  But, even if a true appreciation does not surface until later in life teachers can still receive a “thank you” today.
 
National Teacher Appreciation Week ends May 10 and the Reagan Administration is encouraging parents and students to send a quick e-mail of thanks to not just a favorite educator, but those who pushed students to work above and beyond their expectations.  The teacher a child complains about most deserves an extra thank-you, insists Reagan’s administration, “because we all had those types of teachers and learned to appreciate them as life became more difficult.”
 
Along with a personal e-mail, the National Education Association and the Parent Teacher Association are collecting e-cards or videos from across the country as part of the Nation’s Largest Teacher Thank-You project to be unveiled this time next year.  According to a PTA spokesperson, 5,000 individual gratuities have been collected to date, including those from numerous political figures and celebrities.  Oscar winner Hilary Swank thanked the teacher who cast her in her first acting role, a school production of “The Jungle Book.”  While Oprah Winfrey thanked her fourth-grade teacher who “believed in me and, for the first time, made me embrace the idea of learning”
 
E-mail addresses for NEISD teachers can be found on their school websites and those interested in participating in the Nation’s Largest Teacher Thank-You Card project can visit www.teacherthankyoucard.org. 
 
Eleanor Roosevelt is credited with initiating a National Teacher Day, proclaimed for May 7 by the 81st Congress in 1953.  The PTA later expanded on her idea and dedicated an entire week to honoring those who instruct the "rising generation."