All in a day's work

Children touch my heart everyday.  In no other profession can you walk down the hall at 56 years of age and have so many young men and women tell you how beautiful you are or how good your clothes look.  A young lady touched my heart like no other several years ago.  I was teaching Kindergarten and it was the very first day of school.  We had a very busy day learning things like where is the lunch room, how do we open our milk, and how long is recess?  As we were lining up to leave for the day a lively little girl looked me straight in the eyes and said "you forgot to teach me to read".  I had a big laugh over this and couldn't wait to get in the lounge and tell my peers.  But as the months and years past it dawned on me what a profound statement that was.  We as Early Childhood Educators have such an awesome job.  These little ones come to us so ready and full of wonder. We need to remember not to squash this enthusiasm but to nurture it to the best of our abilities.