I sat parked in my station wagon, patiently waiting along the curb for our first grader to come into view. I watched as a torrent of kids running or walking to meet their parent. Finally, I recognized Kyle’s towhead. The minute he climbed into the car and buckled himself into the car seat, he wriggled around as if his underwear was too tight. “Kyle, what’s wrong?� I asked. He furrowed his eyebrows and squirmed even more. What could’ve happened at school that made him so anxious? Not wanting to add further stress, I waited quietly for him to respond. Kyle fiddled with his seatbelt. “You’re going to get mad at me.� He gave a dramatic pause, and then admitted what had happened. “We were coloring and...and I drew a peepee on my dinosaur. The teacher sent me to the principal’s office.� He heaved a heavy sigh. A giggle slowly started sneaking from the bottom of my stomach up to my throat. I couldn’t let him know this was funny or, undoubtedly, he would do it again. Lassoing the giggle, I cleared my throat. “Kyle, that’s inappropriate to draw at school. Let’s not do that again, okay?� “Okay,� he replied, still sounding upset. “Kyle, I’m not mad. Sometimes things like that happen. You’ve been working hard on thinking before you do or say things in class and that’s good. But now you know you shouldn’t draw things like that at school.� His facial muscles relaxed. Internally, I was out of sorts. Why did his teacher have to overreact? Kids are kids. I’m sure all he needed was to be told it was not okay to draw things like that at school, not gone so far as to send him to the principal’s office. I wanted to leave a message for his teacher to call me but decided to wait until the following day so I could cool down. However, life kept me busy and I kept forgetting to call. About a week later, Kyle handed me information about an open house scheduled the following week. I decided to wait until then to talk to his teacher in person. The room was full of parents. Mrs. Bordier, his teacher, stood in the front of the class asking us to look for our child’s folder and then take a seat. I felt uncomfortable trying to sit on the small first-grader chair. This raven-haired teacher explained in detail what the kids were learning and how we could best help them. She walked around the room talking individually to concerned parents, going over their work, patiently answering questions, always with a genuine smile. I wanted to broach the peepee incident when there were fewer people around. When she finally came over to me, she had a huge smile. ‘I’m impressed with how well Kyle is doing in class this year. He’s matured a lot,� she said. She had been his kindergarten teacher the previous year. I stood up ready to discuss “the problem,� but she bubbled into the next sentence. “A couple of weeks ago, I had passed out photocopies of various dinosaurs so the students could color them. In a few minutes, I heard an explosion of laughter and giggles from a circle of kids surrounding Kyle. I took the photocopy from him and was surprised to see that he had added an appendage to his dinosaur. Embarrassed, I didn’t know what to say, so I sent him to the principal’s office.� “Yes, Kyle told me,� I replied. Since I too am a teacher, I was about to inform her how she should have handled the situation, but she continued. “I shouldn’t have sent him out. I should have told the class maybe that’s why dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t have a peepee. That was a teaching moment that I let pass because I had overreacted.� I smiled, remembering how easy it was to not to deal with the problem by sending a student out of the room while trying to teach a lesson. “Thank you,� I replied. “I know how hard it is to think on the cuff. I make plenty of mistakes in the classroom and have to go back and correct them or apologize.� Mrs. Bordier was already a fabulous teacher in my family’s eyes. She didn’t expect her young students to sit quietly while they were doing their work and often allowed them to work with others as long as they were working. Kyle, who often had a hard time sitting still and listening, never felt judged because this teacher accepted everyone at their individual level. Admitting her mistake only placed her higher on the rung of perfection. When I arrived home, I shared with Kyle what his teacher had said. He beamed. “She already apologized to me in class last week,� he said. Well, that impressed me even further. As a high school teacher, many students complain that teachers rarely apologize when they make mistakes. It was obvious that Mrs. Bordier not only loved kids, but truly loved teaching. She taught her students an invaluable life lesson: It’s okay to apologize when you make a mistake. There are many qualities a great teacher must have to help build a child’s confidence and love for learning. He or she must love kids and accept each child at their own level. They should be funny and make learning interesting, encouraging and motivating them without criticism. They must be kind, patient and teach in multiple ways supporting the different strengths of each child. Most importantly, they need to believe that all students can learn. The flexibility, dedication, and true caring, that teachers demonstrate every day is awe-inspiring. Beyond providing basic teaching of various subjects, they are demonstrating human values and behavior. Children are receiving important messages about caring about one another, working together, and what it means to be a human being. We owe these heroes our eternal gratitude. We were honored to have Mrs. Bordier as Kyle’s teacher and feel lucky to have sent both our children to Topanga Elementary.