Thank you.

I would like to say, in the words of someone who has inspired me as a teacher and a person, that teaching lifts up my heart.

I am so grateful to be surrounded by so many people, adults and children, that teach me so much every day about being honest, about being professional, about taking risks, about learning from mistakes and about what it really means to engage in the gentle pursuit of teaching, or as Claire (a fellow teacher) said, the art of teaching.

It is my hope that teaching always remains an art, that it is never reduced to only that which can be “measured” . For ask any artist here tonight, you can not possibly measure the compassion in a child's voice, the simplicity of a child's perspective, the excitement on a child's face when they respond to a question about a rock by telling you that “one time I went with my dad to a big play place and we got ice cream and tonight I'm going to get a haircut because my sister cut my hair with scissors and my mom said she can't use them anymore, and I think I'm going to be absent next week because I'm taking a trip.”

I am in awe of children everyday, and more than anything I look to them to teach us and remind us that, just as in the stories we read, kindness, fairness, honesty, compassion and a damn good sense of humor are what help us to take good care of people and of things. May they succeed in spite of us.

Thanks again,