Patton Oswalt inspires a wave of teacher love: Take a former teacher to dinner
Any teacher who has ever wondered whether their work is making a difference in the world needs to check out comedian Patton Oswalt’s Twitter feed.
There’s a lot of teacher love going on there right now.
On Wednesday, Oswalt tweeted a photo of himself with his former AP government teacher, Ron Richards.
“I just bought him fajitas,” Oswalt wrote. “If there’s a teacher who helped guide you, track ‘em down and buy ‘em dinner. You can never fully repay them, but it’s a start.”
Oswalt, a Virginia native, graduated in 1987 from Broad Run High School in Ashburn, Virginia, according to his IMDB biography. He graduated from College of William & Mary in 1991.
That handful of words unleashed a flood of passionate responses and thoughts about teachers among Oswalt’s 4.42 million followers — more than 41,000 likes and nearly 5,000 retweets as of Thursday morning.
“You’ve inspired me! Off on a teacher hunt!,” tweeted one woman., one of many touched by Oswalt’s suggestion.
A woman in Lawrence, Kansas, jumped in to ask for help in finding her old kindergarten teacher.
Susan Held, where are you?
“I’ve been trying to track down my kindergarten teacher for years with no luck. Susan Held, Tomahawk Elementary, Olathe KS 1982. (If anyone out there knows her),” tweeted Jennifer Parson.
People posted photos of themselves with teachers they have already reunited with..
One teacher reunited with a student right on Oswalt’s timeline.
“Me and Mr. Perkins, my 7th grade social studies teacher. I also bought him Mexican food.”
“Me and my high school teacher Ms.Bradley! #HollywoodHighSchool fun seeing her!”
“I tracked down my sociology teacher, Mr. Bates, 17 years after graduating. I’m now Mrs. Bates,” she tweeted.
One man wrote that he reached out to his old math teacher after a trip to Home Depot.
“I tagged my high school math teacher on Facebook to let her know my wife and I used the Pythagorean Theorem at Home Depot and I think that made her happier than dinner would have,” he tweeted.
Teachers weighed in, too, with gratitude for Oswalt’s sentiment. One wrote that she prefers enchiladas to fajitas.
Don’t wait to thank a teacher, one of Oswalt’s followers advised, sounding grateful that he had not.
“Quick story: I happened to bump into my favorite English teacher at a restaurant a couple years ago. Thanked her for being a great teacher, etc. She passed away about 2 months later. If there’s someone out there you want to thank, don’t wait. Life is short.”
This story was originally published August 23, 2018 at 10:04 AM.