By: Adam Rohdie
I recently had the chance to hear Amanda Ripley speak. Ms. Ripley, the author of a book called The Unthinkable, Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why, shared a story of a 10-year old girl named Tilley Smith. Little Tilley and her dad were walking along the beach in Thailand when Tilley noticed the ocean behaving strangely. It was frothing and receding. Only a few weeks early in her earth science studies, she learned that these were telltale signs of a tsunami. She told her dad, who did what I suspect most of us would do; he calmed her fears and told her not to worry and to enjoy their vacation.
Tilley would have none of it. She sat down on the beach folded her arms and told her dad she would not move until he did something about what she knew could be tragic. Finally, the dad took Tilley to the hotel lobby and said to the desk clerk, “Hey, I know this sounds crazy, but my daughter thinks the ocean is acting strangely—could this be a sign of tsunami?” A tourist nearby, overhearing the conversation, jumped in, and said yes, indeed those were signs of a tsunami and he had just heard about an earthquake in Sumatra. He urged them to run out and immediately clear the beach. The three men and Tilley ran to beach and evacuated everyone to higher ground and when the tsunami hit moments later, no one on that particular beach died.
This story resonated with me for two specific reasons. First, it shows the power of just a little information. Tilley’s earth science teacher could never have known her curriculum would eventually save lives, but once again it highlights the incredible power of a great teacher. I have misquoted Henry Adams before, but he so perfectly summed up a teacher’s impact on the world when he said, “a teacher effects eternity because they know not where their influence ends.” Perhaps even more succinctly, Christa McAuliffe the teacher/ astronaut killed on the space shuttle Challenger summed it up best when she said, “I touch the future, I teach.” Every day, teachers create magic that is both fragile and permanent; fragile in that it rests on that delicate relationship between teacher and pupil, and permanent because both teacher and student will be forever part of one another. This very dichotomy makes teaching such a mysterious act: it is almost invisible, but it lasts forever.
Second, this story is another example of courage. It takes courage to be ten years old and plop down on a beach and insist that your information may be better than your father’s. It takes courage to jump into a conversation that is not your own. And it certainly takes courage to go out on a limb, without any rank or position, and tell people to clear a beach.
I find these lessons to be more appropriate than ever today. As we find ourselves poised to start what will likely be a very tough winter, we need to applaud, all of those courageous folks who are working on the front lines, who are keeping hospitals open, who are making sure mail gets delivered, and trash gets hauled away. And of course, we need to thank our teachers. While every school must keep safety as their absolute top priority, it is difficult to overestimate the impact of having kids in school, learning in classrooms with great teachers. As the Japanese proverb says, “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.”
