Empty Pails and Bright Fires

"Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire."

                                                                                                       William Butler Yeats

We recently honored 20 retiring faculty and staff members who represent nearly 360 years of combined service to the children of the Needham Public Schools. During the retirement reception I read aloud from a 4th grader's journal in which the student, Andy, acknowledges his principal's upcoming retirement and his affection for her. I shared his note because it reflects what students feel about their teachers and because it is so earnest, innocent, and loving:

I’m thankful for having a kind and helpful family including my friends, teachers, my mom and dad, my pets, my favorite teacher Mrs. Mukenbeck and my favorite and only principal I know, Mrs. Wilcox!! 

But she is now too old to be a principal so she is retiring this year.

Well hope you, Mrs. Wilcox, still remember all of the Eliot school children. 

But, sadly, I will still remember Mrs. Wilcox.

Love,

Andy

Like Andy, we won’t soon forget (or remember?!) our colleagues and friends who have not just filled pails but who have lit many fires over all these years:

Amy Cicala, Hillside

Bruce Cohn, Needham High School

Barbara Collins, Needham Public Schools

Donna A. DeMaria, Hillside

Thomas Dorney, Needham High School

Ann Freeman, , Needham High School

Leslie Hatton, Needham Public Schools

Michael Higashi, Needham High School

Ingrid Hoffman, Needham Public Schools

Laurie Levin, Needham Public Schools

Jane Lockhart, High Rock

Martha Matlaw, Pollard Middle School

MaryLou McCarthy, Needham Public Schools

Sharon Pickering, Pollard Middle School

Robi Richards, Broadmeadow

Sharon Salzbank, Preschool

Jane Streisfeld, Pollard Middle School

Judith Torian, Mitchell

Martha Wells, Broadmeadow

Suzanne Wilcox, Eliot

Thanks to our retirees for their deep commitment to the Needham Public Schools; thanks to them for sharing their lives and believing in young people so that they, in turn, can make our world a more beautiful, just, and peaceful place.