In high school, I had a teacher named Sister Benita Volk. While I remember the names of the majority of my high school instructors, I have a special place in my heart for those who inspired me to go into this profession, those like Sister Benita. It is a good place, I promise!
Sister Benita was my English teacher my sophomore year. I cannot tell you what she taught me in terms of content, but I can tell you that her approach with the class and with me taught me about life, about intellectual curiosity and about God.
She was also a member of the rag-tag group of teachers and students who provided music at Mass at my Catholic high school and I was in that group, too. She was incredibly encouraging of me, and I was (and remain) a hack on the guitar. But I continue to play at Masses to this day in large part because of her.
Years later, after I had returned to my school as a teacher and administrator, Sister Benita applied to return as a teacher there, too. She had dealt with health challenges and life challenges but she was the same teacher – inspired and inspiring.
We hired her. Of course we did.
One of the most prominent awards my former school gives to its teaching staff is named after her, as it should be.
Thank you, Sister, for changing my life and the lives of so many others.
We never know the influence we have… While culture tends to promulgate the “those who can, do, those who cannot, teach” idiocy, there are hundreds of examples of brilliance and impactful teachers in reality and in pop culture. Every-other-week this year, I will share my brief reflections on Smart People Doing Smart Things be they in literature, in film, in music or in real life. Many will be teachers, but not all. Many will be fictional, but some will be real. All will be inspiring. Welcome to IntelliPop!
