Human beings spend a great portion of their lives learning. We sit in classrooms, we listen, we observe, and all the while there is always someone there for us, someone to clarify, to teach, and to guide. There is no doubt that teachers are an integral part of a person's life, whether a child or a young adult, teachers are always there. A cornerstone for our self-betterment, teachers have little choice but to have an impact on the person a child becomes, and quite possibly more importantly, the person a child strives to become. The passage by Ernesto Gallarzo is a poignant memoir of a young boy in his first ventures into an American school, and it contains some very important aspects of a teacher-pupil relationship, the impacts the teacher has may have been intensified by the unique needs of the student, but it encompasses the general idea. The poem while again an exceptional scenario, also portrays the deep impact the slightest actions of a teacher can have on a child, who holds them upon a pedestal.
             To attend school, is to be in the care of an adult other than your parents or guardians for six to eight hours out of the some 13 hours you are awake. To feel that your safety is entrusted in someone, who may just be a complete stranger, a person who you may not have ever even met before, is an intense experience, and feelings of suspicion, vulnerability and fear surpass all others. In the end however, as if by the casting of a spell, the teacher comes into the possession of the trust, the love and the confidence of the children. In Ernesto's experience, school was an exceptional challenge, he was not only going to school to learn, he was going to school to become an American. He was afraid, and he felt insecure, but after he realized he had no choice but to confide in and trust unconditionally his teacher, Miss Ryan, he idolized her...he fell in love with her. Miss Ryan became the foundation of his drive to become ...