Thanks Captain

It seems that for most of our 109 combined years, Tim and I have actively been at either the student or teacher end of lessons.  You can become a certified teacher at any of thousands of schools worldwide, but teaching is an art, and good teachers as hard to find as good artists and as I think back over all the teachers who have struggled to impart some knowledge to this sometimes resistant gray matter, only a handful stand out in my memory.  A middle school teacher that treated her students as the adults she wished them to become rather than the pitiful example of discipline that they were then; a college algebra teacher with the gift to make me understand that mathematics are no mystery, only another language that must be learned in order to become conversant; a flight instructor who also happened to be my husband who managed to teach me to see the whole runway environment rather than fixing on the end numbers; and now, Captain John Henderson, a sailing instructor who enabled us to circumnavigate Long Island Sound in 6 days with a modicum of grace.  On the flight back to St. Louis I was thinking about teachers in general and what makes some successful and some dismal failures.  I decided that a good teacher is a blend of book knowledge, well-honed skills, hard-earned lumps, a deep confidence, and the desire to pass on their passion for what they do, and I can't imagine anyone more passionate about the sea than Captain John.  Thanks Captain.