Before the holidays I was busily completing the formal observation rubrics for a handful of my “Grow Your Own” teacher interns when a message popped up on my screen from Facebook Messenger. It read as follows:
Ms. Laaksonen,
Thirty one years ago you were my language arts teacher. You took me under your wing. You inspired me to be braver, bolder and kinder. You were my “Miss Honey” in my Matilda world and I adored you. Now I am all grown up. I am a Social Emotional Learning and Character Development Director. I have a teaching degree in special education and I teach 75 adults to help kids with big feels. I cannot remember the things that you said to me all those years ago, but I do remember how you made me feel. Any password reset question that included “Who was your favorite teacher?” was automatically “Miss Laaksonen”. I just wanted you to know that you have made a huge difference in my life and because of that, I have grown on to inspire others. Thank you for all you have done.
When I got to the part in the message that mentions Miss Honey, the lovliest of teacher characters from the story, Matilda, by Roald Dahl, I lost it completely, tears streamed down my cheeks. Miss Honey IS the teacher I aspired to be. A 6th grade English teacher for years, I knew exactly who Miss Honey was, and she was everything I ever wanted to be –kind, creative, smart, imaginative and fun…so much fun. Not raucous, chaotic fun. But the kind of fun that relishes pretend and story-writing and the reading of poems. There was just simply no better compliment than that, and I will carry it with me forever.
One thing does stick out for me now though as I think about Miss Honey and that story. You know, Miss Honey had to be very clever to hide her true teaching style from the principal, Agatha Trunchbull. In the movie version of Matilda, the classroom actually transformed from the colorful imaginarium created by Miss Honey back into a standard-issue, sterile classroom each time Ms. Trunchbull was expected to visit. Matilda was written by Dahl in 1988 which is almost 40 years ago. So, that got me thinking. Maybe this oppression of educators is not a new theme but, instead, a recurring one in our system of school. Hmmm…
Well, regardless of this, I will now strive, from my little corner of the world, to unleash as many Miss Honeys into public education as I possibly can. Now more than ever, we could use more of her type! Sweet and loving with children but brave enough to do what’s best for capturing the imaginations of children despite how scary and overbearing the Ms. Truchbulls of our world may seem.
Goodness knows, I’ve had to hide from my share of “Trunchbulls!”
For those of you who don’t know her, I introduce you to Miss Honey!
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