Be the Teacher

I think we all have had teachers who have inspired us. Inspired us to find who we are as individuals, discover our strengths and form the basis of our future. We rarely take the time to honor them, to celebrate what they did for us. Do it!  Honor them. And even if you are not a classroom teacher, always strive to teach and to inspire others.

[Pictured above:  Mr. Neil Cooperman]

My Story:

I was in 9th grade, making my debut year at Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, when I began my formal Computer Science education. I remember walking into the computer programming lab after school to speak with a teacher. – I was shy, and really uncomfortable seeking out individual attention. When I walked in though, both Mr. Cooperman and Mr. Binder got out of their seats and asked if I needed help. – Well, that’s not 100% true, Mr. Cooperman stood up, but Mr. Binder really liked his swivel chair on wheels and more or less “rolled over”. I asked a few questions and both of them effortlessly put me at ease. Soon after that, I made the decision to take Computer Programming as my elective.

As you all know, I was a hacker growing up, so I took to Computer Programming quite well. The work itself was time-consuming, but I enjoyed it—working through problems and generating solutions using programming languages. For all of you spoiled computer-programmers, back then we were using a combination of Assembly and Pascal. – We didn’t have the fancy repo’s you all get to use today!   And we had to manage every byte of memory on our own. The combination of Mr. Binder and Mr. Cooperman made me feel more comfortable with technology. They were teaching me to think the way computers do.

In the fall of my junior year, I took an AP Computer Science and there was a problem where we had to use recursion to navigate through a maze. Long story with a lot of technical details skipped, I was able to solve the problem with Mr. Binder sitting next to me. I even figured out how to graphically show when my solution had to back-track after hitting a dead-end in the maze. Mr. Binder went from leaning back in his chair to sitting forward and just said, “Wow. – You really are a natural at this.” — He patted me on the back… sat back in his chair and said, “You are going to go places kid.”

What I’ve not told anyone until now, is that after that comment, I walked a little taller… my step had a little more bounce. I look back at that moment. It defined my career path. Having those two teachers guide, inspire, and believe in me, was one thing… having them be proud of me was a whole new level.

The following year, three of us from the lab (Kurt, Tim and I) moved on to compete for the Computer Programming State Championship. And we crushed it. Perfect score… record time. I remember Mr. Cooperman showing up shortly after lunch and asked me “How’s it going” – I was able to look up and say, “We just won.” — He gave me a smile that I can’t describe to you all… it meant so much to me.

How I practice it today:
These two teachers are a huge part of who I am today. About two years ago, I reached out to Mr. Cooperman to say thanks, and I finally tracked down Mr. Binder this week. Take the time to thank the teachers that meant that much to you.

You don’t have to be in a classroom to teach and inspire like they did for me. Be the teacher in your own way to inspire others. I wake up every day not because I love work, it’s because I love to inspire people to be the next generation of leaders. – My gift today, appreciate the teachers that made the difference for you, and be the teacher they were for others.