Dear Envision Educator Partners:
At Envision we appreciate teachers all year, but Teacher Appreciation Week in particular is a pretty big week for us. Educators are a vital part of our family, and dedicating some time to celebrate the great work and contributions you make to our students and their collective future is really important to us. Whether you’re a nominator for our programs our simply a fellow supporter of helping students realize the power of their potential, we salute you.
For me personally, it's also a good chance to reflect on the teachers who have made an impact in my life. Though I was lucky enough to have many great teachers, one really stands out as a game-changer for me - thank you, Mr. Murray Mullins.
Mr. Mullins was my 5th grade teacher in the suburban Philadelphia district that I attended as a kid. He was the ultimate "cool" teacher, a gregarious Alabama native whose southern accent was a standout among the staff. He was full of energy and did an incredible job getting all of his classes to think of themselves as a distinct group, as a team. In our school, each class had an animal nickname, and Mr. Mullins embraced the idea to the fullest - we were the Mullins Muskrats, and we ran as a pack. Mr. Mullins "autographed" all successful assignments with a letter grade and a little cartoon of a smiling muskrat, buck teeth and all.
One day in 6th grade (I had graduated from the Mullins Muskrats to the Whiteside Worms), I was up to some kind of mischief which led me to be seated at the "discipline table" in the cafeteria - this was a separate eating area at which kids who had gotten into trouble were quarantined so that they would not rile up the rest of the student population. It was a kind of a cross between detention and solitary confinement - which in retrospect was probably a somewhat short-sighted idea, given the fact that putting all the rambunctious kids together likely made more noise than spreading them out across different tables.
In any case, as I gathered my lunch and headed towards this Alcatraz of elementary dining, Mr. Mullins pulled me aside. He looked me in the eye and said simply, with a hint of disappointment in his voice, "Remember, you're a Muskrat wherever you go." I remember feeling a pang of shame, like I had let down not just Mr. Mullins but also the dozens of other Muskrats, past and present, in the school.
So, as I reflect on Teacher Appreciation Week this year, that simple phrase from Mr. Mullins is what surfaces to the top of my mind. For in it is embedded high expectations - for myself, for others - and a desire for constant improvement and accountability. A desire to not settle but to work hard and constantly strive. While I received many, many skills from teachers over the years, I like to think that the desire to constantly strive towards "maximum muskrat-ness" (or would it be muskraticity?) has persisted as the most valuable.
I would like to take this moment to thank all of you out there doing great and truly important work as teachers. I know that each of you have your own groups of "muskrats" that you support daily, and that you are making as a huge difference in their lives - as Mr. Mullins made in mine.
On behalf of our family at Envision, please accept my thanks for your service to our young people and for the difference you make each and every day.
Carpe Futurum!
Duncan Young
CEO, Envision Experience
Muskrat Forever
background-image: a building with the American flag in front of it