NEVER IN NOTHING

Dear Spike:

Your mother began the school year with a classroom of 25 students, many of whom didn't speak English and most of whom had never had a book read to them, much less ever owned one.

She fretted. She cried. She wondered whether she was the right teacher for the job.

But she didn't run away. She didn't say no. And when she was advised to simply treat her kindergarteners as pre-schoolers, she declined.

Yesterday, the students' test scores came in. Almost all of them are reading on grade level.

Winston Churchill said it best: "Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty — never give in."

Love,
dad