At St. Francis High School in La Canada, Calif., there's something to be said about math teacher Jim O'Connor. The question is, what is that something?
For whatever reason, none of his students would tell me what they really think of him.
"Oh, what's the word," one student says.
Jim O'Connor's students thought they knew him -- until last November, when senior Pat McGoldrick learned they didn’t know the half of him.
CBS NEWS
"He's going to be seeing this, right?" the student asks.
Oh yeah, that's why.
Truth is, O'Connor can be a bit of a drudge. But the 70-year-old Vietnam vet says he's not here to entertain his students.
"It drives me crazy when people say school should be fun," he says. "I mean, it's nice if it could be, but you can't make school fun."
And for years, the kids thought that's all there was to him -- until last November, when senior Pat McGoldrick learned they didn’t know the half of him.
Pat was in charge of a student blood drive and had just come to Children's Hospital Los Angeles for a meeting. And he says it was weird: whenever he told someone he went to St. Francis High School, they all said, "Oh, you must know Jim O'Connor. Isn’t he wonderful?"
"It was disbelief, really," Pat says. "It was almost, like, kind of finding this alter ego that he has."
Inside the blood donor center, Pat found a plaque listing all the top blood donors at the hospital, including the record holder, Jim O'Connor. Then he learned something even more unbelievable: that whenever O'Connor isn’t torturing kids with calculus, he's on a whole other tangent -- cuddling sick babies.
Three days a week for the past 20 years, Jim has volunteered at the hospital, stepping in when parents can't, to hold, feed and comfort their children.
Nurse Erin Schmidt says he's invaluable.
Three days a week for the past 20 years, Jim has volunteered at the Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
CBS NEWS
"I just like them and relate to them somehow," O'Connor says.
O'Connor has never been married; he has no kids of his own. But he has fallen hard for these babies.
"I don’t want to see them alone," he says. "You can't do that."
He's not a tough guy at all.
"I know, but don't tell my students," he says.
Sometimes you think you know someone, but you don't have the slightest. Sometimes you think you're learning calculus, but the real lesson is life.
"I've always respected him, but now it's to an even different degree -- really to the point where I try to emulate him," Pat says. "He's the epitome of a man of service."
Source: CBS News
Source: CBS News
10 comments:
You can never really be sure to know someone properly until they really decide to open themselves up to you.
I remember at least a couple of different teachers I was assigned to in high school and college that everyone I knew told me I would hate. With scheduling limitations, though, many times we can't pick a class that has ALL of the parameters we want but those were a couple of my favorite teachers EVER. I've come to the conclusion that everyone relates to everyone differently and a person one person can't stand might be perfectly compatible with someone else...
A teacher with a Big Heart! We could use more like this guy.
This is such a heart warming story! This man is really
This is one special teacher.
We need more caring teachers like this man.
This teacher is just amazing and has such a giving, caring heart!!
I truly admire people like this teacher. The world needs more persons like him.
More teachers are needed like this one.
That's really sweet. I guess with all the cuddling and loving in Hospital he needed to compensate with strictness in school!
Post a Comment