Impress or Impact

I just finished reading the above book: Teaching to Change Lives by Dr. Howard Hendricks. I was assigned to read this book for one of my classes. It was a great book!

I am the type of reader who can be reading for a long period of time without truly comprehending everything I am reading and then all of a sudden something will jump out at me and get a hold of me. This was definitely how this book was. I was reading along when this small paragraph jumped out at me.

"“You can impress people at a distance. But you can impact them only up close. And the closer you are to them, the greater and more permanent the impact.”

It is just a small paragraph, but it really made me think....

I thought back to the many teacher I have had through my many years of schooling. I remember how impressed I was and still am at the brains of some of my teachers, especially some of my math and science teachers... but that is all...I was impressed. And then I can think back to one or two teachers who didn't necessary impress me but boy did they impact me. There was one teacher in particular you had more faith in me than I ever had in myself. She encouraged me, worked one on one with me, prayed for me- and told me she was, wrote little notes to me, and even worked out with me. Now...that is the type of teacher that truly impacted me. In fact because of her impact I am taking Secondary Education in History in Speech. Who ever would have thought that I, a shy backward little girl would be minoring in Speech...all because one teacher took the time...the time to impact. This little saying reminded me why I am taking Secondary Education in the first place. It is not so I can impress people, (don't get me wrong- I do want to learn it all so I can teach intelligently), but to impact my students. Like Christa McAuliffe said, "I touch the future, I teach." As I future teacher I have the opportunity of a life time. I can impact the future generation. But it is all up to me- will I impress my students with my understanding of History and my ability to speak or preform a drama, or rather will I impact one student who will never be the same all because I came "up close."