Mrs. Gonzalez was a woman in her mid to late sixties. She was gentle by nature and ultra patient with her kindergarten class, especially me. I had a difficult time sitting still. What I really mean is remaining still whether I was sitting, standing or probably even while I was crawling on the mat that taught us the various shapes and colors. She did love me and I could feel her love. Because she loved me so much I think that when she got to the point when she could no longer stand for my behavior she kindly invited me to go pay a visit to Dr. Johansen, the principal. In the beginning, I was scared to go to his office. After my initial visit I quickly learned that he was a kind man. Looking back on that time I realize that he was very good at his job and he loved the kids, no doubt about it! Dr. Johansen would spend about ten minutes visiting with me about the ins and outs of the over-the-top life of a kindergarten student. He would always end with, "are you ready to go back to class and be quiet for rest of the day?" I agreed each time and quickly returned to class attempting to do better. There was something else I did that really bothered Mrs. Gonzalez. My penmanship was atrocious! I can still hear the gentleness in her voice as she would plead with me to take a little more time on my writing. My intention was good but when it came time to actually write, I would speed my way through the simple writing exercise. After about a dozen times of kindly asking me to do better and many papers returned to me from being graded with red marks indicating what I had done wrong, I finally received a paper that had a hand-written message at the top of the paper. In perfect penmanship were written the two clear words at the top of the page..."Good spaces!" On this particular paper, my teacher had decided to point out something positive hoping that this strategy might impact my decision to actually want to improve. The spacing I had used between the letters I had written was good, a finger width apart from each other.
All of these years later, I find a great deal of wisdom in her approach.
There is a pure lesson to be learned here. No matter what the situation is, there is always something positive to be found. Mrs. Gonzalez taught me that value as a kindergarten student and I have thought about that lesson many times since.
Her optimistic attitude instilled in me the confidence to be a better writer.
Now the desire to have good penmanship has stuck, thanks to a loving teacher who cared enough to take the time to point out something to me that I had done good. I will be thankful to her forever!
