Teaching is a profession that isn't appreciated enough. The best educators can do far more than simply impart knowledge or skills to their pupils. They can help instill interests or foster them, encouraging the curious to seek out more and pointing them in the right directions. Though elementary and middle school were not great times in my life, being the bullied and often lonely kid that I was, I count myself lucky into those years to have been blessed by some great teachers. One of them was Sh...