Scribd
Upload
2K views3 pages

Retirement Speech

The speaker is retiring after 25 years of teaching. They reminisce about starting out full of ideas but realizing they had much to learn from their students. Over the years, the speaker gained an understanding that true teaching is a partnership where teacher and student see each other's inner selves. While fashions and influences changed over decades, the students' drive to strive for truth and righteousness remained constant. The speaker feels grateful for the memories and lessons learned from students, and looks forward to their retirement filled with travel, hobbies, and time with family and friends.

Uploaded by

cherian
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
2K views3 pages

Retirement Speech

The speaker is retiring after 25 years of teaching. They reminisce about starting out full of ideas but realizing they had much to learn from their students. Over the years, the speaker gained an understanding that true teaching is a partnership where teacher and student see each other's inner selves. While fashions and influences changed over decades, the students' drive to strive for truth and righteousness remained constant. The speaker feels grateful for the memories and lessons learned from students, and looks forward to their retirement filled with travel, hobbies, and time with family and friends.

Uploaded by

cherian
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Thank-you Mr Harris {The Principal} for your wonderful introduction.

Have I really been here 25 years? That sounds like a long time ...
about the same length as a double spell of English grammar on a
Friday afternoon when the sun is shining. That too can seem to go
on and on.

Fortunately for you I don't plan to.

I remember coming here with my brand new teacher kit. I was full of
ideas, things to do to make a difference. I thought I was the teacher
and you, the students were my pupils. How wrong I was.

It took a while to understand for I was a reluctant learner. My head


was so full of how things 'should be', there was very little room for
how things 'were'. The gap in those early days between what I
thought I needed to teach and what the students actually needed to
learn was wide. There were times when bridging it was difficult.
There were even times when it seemed impossible and I wanted to
give up.

Mr Harris has been kind in saying I gave a gift of myself; my energy,


enthusiasm, honesty, respect and love, to you. But I want to turn
that around and give it back, for this is precisely what I feel you
have given me.

I have been privileged to have had in my classroom many, many


fine young people. 25 years ago some of them began to teach me
how to teach.

They helped me build the first bridges. From them I learned true
teaching is a special partnership. It only really works when the
teacher reaches beyond the outer image, looks into the heart,
understands and respects what they see. The student's role is to
allow themselves to be seen, not just for who they are, or have
been, but also for who they could be.

Over the years fashion has had skirts short, long and short again.
Under wear has become over wear. Hair has come, gone, been big,
cropped, technicolored, bleached, curled, straightened, extended
and dreadlocked. Names have not been exempt. They too reflect
changing times; charting the rise of new influences whether they be
pop, TV, film or sport stars, or perhaps an inspirational leader
capturing hearts and minds.

Despite the altering of outward appearance and what people are


called, there has always been and always will be a constant. That is
the inner need to strive for what is true and right.

I look back with gratitude. I entered a profession dedicated to


assisting young people achieve their potential, to revealing or
finding their best selves. As I leave it, I am taking many of you with
me. You will live on in my memories. I'll always remember the
things we achieved together: the many successful plays we put on,
the speeches you gave, the debates and end of year concerts.

I've been asked what I'm going to do now. I'm going to do a lot of
things and very few of them conform to the notion of retirement as a
time of waiting for the inevitable end. Helen Hayes, put it this way:
'People who refuse to rest honorably on their laurels when they
reach “retirement” age seem very admirable to me.'

I am going to travel to places I've always wanted to go to and


haven't been. I am going to read books that have been waiting on
my 'must read' list for years. I will garden, learn new skills, play with
my grandchildren, visit art galleries, enjoy being around friends... In
short, I plan to LIVE.

I want to pay tribute to my colleagues for their support, friendship


and exemplars of what it is to serve faithfully and with humility. I will
always remember our shared laughter, our joys as well as our
struggles. Thank-you for the never-ending supply of black coffee in
the staff-room to keep me awake and alert. Thank-you too, for the
notes of appreciation, words of encouragement, sharing of
resources, and time but mostly for your sincerity and trust.

And lastly, I leave you with this thought. There is only ever one of
each us: one Jane Smith or one Mr Harris. We are unique. We are
neither better nor less than anybody else but rather the best or least
of ourselves. I am still working on finding the best of me. It is an
exciting on-going journey. Thank-you for being my traveling
companions along a large and important part of my way. I am
forever grateful for your stimulating company and the enormous
collection of shared experiences indelibly printed on my mind.

Thank-you. Happy holidays!

You might also like