Excerpt from….
“There are so
many things you could do with your life.
You could decide to build houses.
Or sell cars. Or you could
determine to build bridges. Or grow
crops. Or design tall buildings. Or write books. Or act out parts on the
24” x 36” Poster |
stage…It’s true. There are
many, many things you could do with your life.
You could decide to do any of these things. And more. Or, you could
decide to teach…Perhaps you could teach. You could perhaps teach the people who build these things and do
these things. And more. It is teachers who build the people who
build these things. And more. Much, much more. They build the builders.”
Who Builds The Builders (excerpt) © 1986
Francis Xavier Trujillo, Ed.D.
All Rights
Reserved. Unauthorized use subject
to full
enforcement of the law.
“…we gave it (the poster) to 36 teachers who were recognized this year by the school district for the quality of their teaching.”
“I had it professionally framed and gave it to my mother on the occasion of her retirement from teaching. At the dinner, I was given the time to read it aloud. Everyone was in tears. About a hundred people came up and said they also want a copy.”
“We’ve been giving
this poster to beginning students in our teacher training program for about 10
years now. They, in turn, take it out
with them into the various school sites where they work with experienced, ‘master’
teachers. I’ve seen the poster now in
about 12 or 15 different schools here in the county. You can be very happy knowing that this piece is having a very
wonderful impact on all who see it.”
“This is the ‘Granddaddy’ of them all! I wrote this back in 1985-86. I guess I was thinking it’s about time the
general public awakened to the perception of teachers as builders. Indeed, this is very much the case. Teachers build. As I have said elsewhere (see our bumper
stickers), teachers build the future, one kid at a time!
My feeling at the time was that if
the public developed an awareness of the true significance of teaching,
everything else would change. This
awareness would do so very much to attract the most academically talented into
teaching, more appropriately reward those already in the profession, and even
go a long ways toward retaining those individuals sometimes lost to other more
lucrative careers. Since 1987,
literally thousands of school people have used ‘Builders’ to inspire
those considering teaching as a profession and to recognize and honor those
typically ‘under-appreciated’ teachers, those ‘forgotten, unsung heroes,’ the
good and decent people already in the profession. This piece will always be very special to me.”
-- Frank Trujillo