Virginia student pens letter thanking teacher for making learning fun

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) – A teacher can shape the world for children and make them succeed in ways they never imagined.  One J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School student already is and wanted to start the year by thanking the woman who makes him excited to learn.

“Good morning, Mrs. Thomas.  You’re the best teacher I have ever had,” Jamil Mashore reads the letter going viral online.  “This is the first year I have ever been happy to go to school.”

The Richmond fifth grader is thanking his teacher Miriam Thomas for being the absolute best she can be.

“She has a teacher life and a personal life, so I thought just to take my time out to write her a letter, that would make her at least a little happier,” Mashore explains why he decided to type the note of appreciation just eight days into the school year.

“It was so unexpected and it was very, very thoughtful,” says Thomas about reading the letter.  “I got teary-eyed because I’m a crier.”

In the letter, Mashore refers to Thomas as his “school mom.”

“I told them on the first day there are going to be some days you see me more than your parents and I will see you more than my own children, so why do we want to be miserable?”  Thomas remembers.  “Let’s make it a safe place for everybody.  We don’t know what’s going to happen outside of here, but we can control what happens in our room.”

In that room, Mashore says Mrs. Thomas makes learning easy and fun.  Her classroom also feels like a family to him.

Thomas, who has been a teacher for eight years, says connecting with students this way is the reason why she is so dedicated to her work.

“We’re not just here to teach academics.  Reading and writing and math, that’s important.  But we’re also here to teach them to be good citizens, to be kind to each other so when they grow up they’re be contributing members of society.”