A Child's View of a Teacher

We've been homeschooling for 3yrs.  My youngest has always been homeschooled, and her brother above her went to just kindergarten at a brick and mortar school.  You would think that I pulled them recently listening to the conversation they had in the car yesterday.

There was a woman with a suitcase walking on the side of the road where we were sitting waiting for traffic to clear from an accident ahead of us.  Annah said, "Look!  That lady is a hobo."  Jesse, obviously irritated with his younger sibling's inaccurate judgement of this woman's residential status replied, "Annah.  Look at her.  She's not a hobo.  She's too pretty to be a hobo.  That's my teacher from kindergarten, Mrs. Kammerzel"  Obviously, one's residential status is dependent on one's beauty.  Annah, trying to prove her memory to be as strong as her big brother's, "Oh right!".  Jesse must have looked closer at the lady because he decided that this woman, though definitely not a hobo, was also not Mrs. Kammerzel.  "That's not Mrs. Kammerzel, she was prettier, like Mrs (insert one of his friend's mom's names).  No, she was even prettier, like Mrs. Knudson."  Annah and he both agreed that she was indeed so beautiful as to not only make it impossible for her to ever be a hobo, but to surpass the friend's mom and reach the same level of beauty as,,, Mrs. Knudson.  Mrs. Knudson is their teacher at their new co-op type school this year.  She is indeed beautiful, and a fantastic addition to our schooling experience! But, she looks NOTHING like Mrs. Kammerzel who was.. a mousy little woman with little patience for Jesse and ultimately, one of the major reasons I pulled him from brick and mortar school.

Why does this precious jewel of a boy have such fond memories of a woman who didn't have the patience to  properly learn his needs and teach him in a fashion that would help him grasp the information.  This woman who told the rest of the class, "Ignore Jesse.  He can't focus, and so we are just going to ignore him." ???  I honestly don't understand it, but I pray that it isn't something lost in his recollection of me and that my shortcomings as mother and teacher will not be what he remembers.  I pray that instead of memories of all of my warts, he'll see me as lovely because he's looking at me through my love for him.

After sitting and thinking on how much his two teachers looked alike, he added, "She looked just like Mrs. Knudson, except her nose had freckles on it.. it was really cute."  Oh, how he melts my heart!