To my students,

I know you must get tired of hearing it. If I’m honest, there are days I’m tired of hearing it as well because I’ve heard it so much that it has become almost cliche. BUT. YOU ARE THE LEADER OF YOUR OWN LEARNING. I can put that into different words if it will help you really hear it:

Nobody can learn for you.

You are responsible for your own education.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.

You are in charge of how successful you are.

You get to control your own destiny.

As much as your teachers and parents wish they could learn for you, we can’t.

Osmosis doesn’t work like you wish it would.

The decisions you make each day in the classroom will affect your life more than you can imagine.

There. Is that better? Because no matter how I say it, the truth remains the same. I am your teacher for ONE year. I get to spend this ONE year with you, offering you my knowledge, my wisdom, and my care for ONE year. Then you will leave me. You will go on to another teacher who will spend a year offering you his knowledge, wisdom, and care before you leave him and move on to someone else. There may be a year when you are forced to be in the classroom of a teacher who has had enough, who doesn’t do her job, and who is just holding out for retirement. I won’t be there to help you get through that year.

But you will be there. You will be in all of those classrooms, and you will have a decision to make: the decision to ride it out or the decision to take control of YOUR education. Make the right one. Make the right decision because I spent a year of my life pouring into you. Make the right decision because 10 other teachers did the same. We believed in you. We BELIEVE in you.

But we can’t do it for you.