An honor for my daughter

My older daughter Nancy is an adjunct (that is, "part-time") professor of English at North Lake College in Irving, Texas (just west of Dallas). It is a component of the Dallas County Community College District, which overall is the largest undergraduate educational institution in the state of Texas.

Each year, a vote of the student body chooses the top "full time" and "adjunct" faculty members. We just learned yesterday that Nancy was voted Adjunct Faculty of the Year.

All here know of the importance I place on language as a central tool of all human accomplishment, and so you know how pleased I have been that the teaching of language became the centerpiece of my daughter's professional career. And of course there is no way I can adequately express our pride in this new recognition of her work.

Best regards,

Doug
le crayon rouge ne dort jamais

By the way, I have two other teachers among my "daughters".

My younger actual daughter, Linda, is at present responsible for IT technical training and support for a large international charity, headquartered in Dallas. In the past, she had a consulting practice principally devoted to technical training in the IT field. She is a wonderful teacher.

My third "daughter" is actually my late first wife's younger sister Alice, whom we raised as a daughter after the death of their mother in 1963. She recently retired from a career as an English teacher with the Albuquerque (New Mexico) public schools. She was the "go to girl" on a wide range of issues at several schools in the system where she taught (in fact, her e-mail address is based on the string "goaskalice".)

Over the years I have emphasized to all three of these girls the enormous degree of leverage one gets through teaching - especially teaching in the language field and its derivatives. The skills imparted allow the student to learn, and in turn to pass information on to others, an enormously regenerative process.

I'm so proud of all three of these capable women.

Best regards,

Doug

Congratulations on your daughters' successes. I am sure you imparted a lot of your wisdom over the years that has helped them achieve their successes. And, I agree, language and the ability to communicate are wonderful things.

Congratulations, Doug. This is a great achievement.

These tests of popularity can also have adverse consequences. In one survey of faculty, a colleague of mine realized he was getting panned and decided to "protect" his reputation as a stellar teacher. However, his handwriting on so many ballots arose suspicions and it didn't take long before he was discovered to be the culprit! What an embarrassment.

So while such contests have great significance for students, if one doesn't get ranked well, it can be a disaster!

Good thing you gave your daughter the tools to communicate well and therefore become a great teacher. Such skills don't come from nowhere. Kudos to your entire family!

Asher