Teacher Appreciation Week is this Monday through Friday, while National Teachers Day is Tuesday.

Next week, basically, is a great opportunity to offer thanks to the men and women who work in a most under-compensated and over-judged industry.

Teachers impact us all. The best give us the tools to make our own way in life.

Today’s newspaper edition is dedicated to our teachers and includes many features designed to showcase these valued contributors.

Please take the time to read a front page story on Mary Beazie Maurin, who has worked with our youth for more than four decades. There are also numerous vignettes on pages 6B-10B showcasing some of our most experienced teachers from more than a dozen schools in St. John the Baptist Parish.

Please vote for your favorite teacher through a contest on page 5B that will earn the winning teacher an awesome dessert and plaque.

In anticipation of this column, I asked numerous community members who their favorite teacher was and how they benefited from their time together.

Port of South Louisiana Executive Director Paul Aucoin said his favorite was third grade teacher Simone Abadie, who taught him at Wallace Public School.

“She was enthusiastic and made learning interesting,” Aucoin said. “She encouraged good penmanship.”

Akeem Burl, family services coordinator for Child Advocacy Services, said his favorite teacher was Ruby Porter, his fifth grade teacher at Our Lady of Grace School in Reserve.

Mrs. Porter taught him how to be obedient to his elders and those in authority.

“She taught me proper grammar when I used it improperly,” Burl said. “She instilled in me the meaning of ‘hard work.’ I appreciate the tough love she showed me during my time at OLG and being that motherly figure at school who kept me in line and on the right path. She and Mrs. Olivia P. French really lived by the phrase ‘it takes a village to raise a child.’”

Harold Keller, longtime L’OBSERVATEUR columnist, said his seventh grade teacher, Sister Mary Evangelist, at St. Peter School in Reserve saw through his rebellious side and never gave up on him.

“She showed me that caring and loving someone is what most people need,” Keller shared.

Years later, these successful individuals still know the teachers that impacted them most when they were in grade school.

It’s a special bond that great teachers strive to make with all their students.

The late Wiley Hilburn Jr. was my mentor, and when I knew him, he was chairman of the Louisiana Tech University journalism department.

No other person outside of my father, mother and wife has been as much of a guiding force to my professional and personal happiness as Mr. Hilburn.

I loved learning from him because, in a way I found uniquely his, he embraced me for my faults and not for any perceived strengths. My trust in him grew throughout college as I was able to tell him about my worst fears and failures in a safe environment — quite the interesting dynamic because I was between 19 and 20 years old and he was in his early 60s.

He used to leave the keys in the ignition of his sports car, with the doors unlocked while often being parked in a tow-away zone.

He was a super unique man who — like the best teachers — took advantage of his opportunities with students on a daily basis to push them to their creative potentials.

Thank you, Mr. Hilburn. And, thank you, teachers for choosing to work for the benefit of others.

Stephen Hemelt is publisher and editor of L’OBSERVATEUR. He can be reached at 985-652-9545 or stephen.hemelt@lobservateur.com.