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When I was in 4th grade I had a wonderful teacher. She was young, beautiful, kind and caring. My classmates and I could never pronounce her name and we certainly couldn't spell it. I think I could pen it correctly now but it was her maiden name and we kids often just referred to her as Miss M. It was early in Miss M's career when she taught me. It may have even been her first year of teaching. I don't remember the exact details of her teaching career. I do remember sitting on the carpet in her classroom in Cluster One and listening to her read to us. My classmates and I were mesmerized by Miss M.
Sometime in the spring of my 4th grade year, Miss M. decided that our class would put on a talent show for the other five classrooms in the cluster. Kids in my class excitedly signed up to sing, dance, play instruments and do tumbling. We even had a magician and a poet in our class as well as a martial artist. It seemed like everyone had a really cool talent except for me and a boy named Gary.
Miss M. asked me why I hadn't signed up for an act in the show. I embarrassedly told her that I didn't have any interesting talents like the rest of my classmates. When Miss M. heard this she said, "Andrew that's nonsense." I loved it when Miss M. called me Andrew and not Andy. She said my name in a way that was endearing and not in the harsh way that a parent would say your full name when you were in trouble. Miss M. told me that I was the best reader and writer in the class and that I would be the perfect emcee for our talent show. She told me that I would be writing the script for the show and reading it along with Gary.
At the time I didn't think that being the best reader and writer in the class was very interesting but at least Miss M. had found a way for Gary and me to be part of the Talent Show. I worked very hard writing introductions and descriptions for each act. As I worked with Gary I had the idea that it would be fun to do commercials between some of the acts just like the commercials that were popular on TV at the time.
I came up with some very comical commercial ideas but Miss M. wouldn't let me do some of my favorites. She didn't think it would be a good idea if I did an ad for Hawaiian Punch and gave Gary a good wallop when he said he wanted the drink. She did let us do an Oreo commercial, an ice cream commercial and to my surprise Miss M. said I could do a Noxema shaving cream commercial like the one NY Jets quarterback Joe Namath was doing on TV at the time with Farrah Fawcett.
I was prepared to bring the shaving cream and a razor, minus the blade of course, and pretend to shave in front of the whole cluster as the last commercial of the show. I had the script written out and included Namath's famous line. "Let Noxema cream your face so the razor won't."
After Miss M agreed to the razor commercial we thought she might let us do the panty hose commercial that Namath was running about the same time. But Miss M. wasn't going to let Gary or me show how pretty our legs could look in Hanes Beauty Mist Pantyhose the way that Broadway Joe had. Gary and I had to be satisfied with the commercials I wrote and prepared for us. I was excited to do the shaving cream commercial.
Days before the show Miss M. pulled me aside and told me that she had read the script that I had written and she had reviewed the commercials I had penned. Miss M. told me that I had done an amazing job and she was so proud of me. And then she asked me, " Gary really wants to do the shaving cream commercial. Why don't you let him do it?" I didn't want to give Gary the best commercial I had written but it was Miss M. asking.
And she called me Andrew. How could I say no?
The day of the Talent Show finally arrived. I had brought in all the props for the commercials and printed up the scripts for the talent acts and the ads. The show was proceeding wonderfully. My talented classmates performed flawlessly. Gary and I worked through our announcers' scripts until it came time for Gary to do my last best commercial. As soon as he put the Noxema on his face and Gary started to pretend shave, I knew I had made a terrible mistake in letting him have my best commercial. The entire cluster erupted in uproarious laughter. Gary had stolen the show with my script, my razor and my commercial. Everyone found him to be hilarious. I had given Gary all the glory and comedic fame that should have rightfully been mine.
I felt even worse two days later. All the kids in the audience were given a writing assignment to send letters to our class complimenting the acts of the talent show. Miss M. read some of the letters to us and she had the better readers also read letters to the rest of the class. Not one letter had anything to say about me as emcee of the show. But it seemed like every letter mentioned how funny it was when Gary did the shaving cream commercial. The ultimate indignity came when I had to read a letter from a girl I was crushing on who penned a note saying how funny and cute Gary was. Not only had I given away my best commercial but I had given Gary a clear path to my crush.
I was thoroughly pissed and Miss M. knew it. She pulled me aside for a quiet moment and said, "Andrew you did a wonderful thing letting Gary have that commercial. Look at all the positive attention he is getting. This has been so good for him. Some day soon you will realize that it's just as important to help someone else shine, maybe even more important, than shining your own light."
I didn't know what to say to her. I couldn't be mad at Miss M. I adored her. And she called me Andrew. But I did say, "Yeah, that's never gonna happen".
It took quite a few years for me to really understand Miss M's message. I don't think I truly got it until I became a teacher, a coach and then a principal. I loved helping kids shine in my math classroom and on my wrestling teams. And I thought of Miss M. and the 4th grade talent show quite often when as a principal I did the morning announcements with a couple kids to start each day of school. It was a great way to start the day and I had a smile on my face all day long when an awkward kid would steal the show using the morning announcement scripts that I had written for them. For 40 years I found joy lifting up young ones and helping them shine. And I was damn good at it. Thank you Miss M. for showing me my calling before I even knew of it.