Mrs．Thompson，an elementary teacher，stood in front of her 5thgrade class on the very first day of school，and told the children a lie．Like most teachers。she looked at her students and said that she 10vedthem all the same．But that was impossible，because there in the frontrow，slumped in his seat，was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard．
Mrs．Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed thathe didn’t play well with the other children，that his clothes were messyand that he constantly needed a bath．And Teddy could be unpleasant．Itgot tO the point where Mrs．Thompson would actually take delight inmarking his papers with a broad red pen，making bold X’S and then put—ting a big“F”at the top of his papers．At the school where Mrs．Thomp—son taught，she was required to review each child’S past records and sheput Teddy’S off until last．However，when she reviewed his file，she wasin for a surprise．
Teddy’S first grade teacher wrote，“Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh．He does his work neatly and has good manners…he is a joyto be around．”
His second grade teacher wrote，“Teddy is an excellent student，wellliked by his classmates，but he is troubled because his mother has a termi—nalsand life at home must be a struggl“’
His third grade teacher wrote，“His mother’S death has been hard on him．He tries to do his best but his father doesn’t show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps area’t taken．”
Teddy’S fourth grade teacher wrote，“Teddy is withdrawn and doesn’t show much interest in sch001．He doesn’t have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class．”
By nOW，Mrs．Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself．She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents，wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper，except for Ted—dy’S His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy，brown paper that he got from a grocery bag．Mrs．Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents．Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume．
But she stifled the children’S laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was，putting it on，and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist．Teddy stayed after school that day just long enough to say，“Mrs．Thompson，today you smelled just like my Mom used to．”After the children left she cried for at least an hour．On that very day，she quit teaching reading，and writing，and arithmetic．Instead，she began to teach children．
Mrs．Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy．As she world with him，his mind seemed to come alive．The more she encouraged him，the faster he responded．By the end of the year，Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and。despite her lie that she would loveall the children same，Teddy became one of her favorite．
A year later，she found a note under her door，from Teddy，tellingher that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life．Sixyears went by before she got another note from Teddy．He then wrote thathe had finished high school，second in his class，and she was still the bestteacher he ever had in his whole life．Four years after that，she got anotherletter，saying that while things had been tough at times，he’d stayed in school，had stuck with it，and would soon graduate from college with thehighest of honors．He assured Mrs．Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life．
