By MACKENZEE SIMMS | Staff Column

Every month in the Shelby County Reporter, we dedicate a section of the paper to education in our local communities. Today, I would like to illustrate the impact educators can have on the lives of their students in both positive and negative ways.

When I was in the first grade, I had an accident that resulted in my right arm losing almost all function. I was born right handed and had to relearn how to do everything with my left arm. Instead of field trips, my days were spent being pulled out of classes to attend doctor’s appointments and physical therapy.

To say it was a rough year would be an understatement.

I remember a specific day when my parents were at the school for parent-teacher conferences. I pulled on their arms, tugging them down the hallway to see my drawing displayed outside of the art classroom. I searched and searched but couldn’t find my drawing hanging up.

My parents asked the art teacher if she had forgot to hang up my artwork. She hadn’t forgotten. She told my parents that my work was “too sloppy” to hang up. I had just lost the use of my dominant hand in an accident, and she wouldn’t hang up my artwork. I was in first grade. She gave me an ‘F’ in that class.

To say that had an impact on how I viewed myself would be an understatement.

But I would like to contrast that experience with my fifth grade music teacher, Ms. DePriest.

When the entire class was learning how to play cheap plastic recorders, I approached her and told her I couldn’t play certain notes that required two hands. She told me to try my best.

She went back to her office and ordered a special one-handed recorder and taught herself how to play it. A few weeks later, she presented it to me and offered to teach me how to play with one hand so that I could still participate in the end of the year concert.

To say that this was kind gesture would be an understatement.

Teachers have the opportunity to change student’s lives every single day. Small moments each day accumulate into lessons that follow their students for the rest of their lives.

I would also like to take a moment to thank all of the teachers that influenced me for the better. Thank you Ms. DePriest, Ms. McCloud, Mrs. Sanders, Mrs. Williamson, Mr. Marsh, Dr. Emmons, Tom Crosby, Dr. Ledgerwood, Dr. Heath and Dr. Carey. Your work matters, every day.