A short spoken talk by Adam Markel emphasizing the importance of impact and influence in teaching. He contrasts material success without meaning to the fulfillment of seeing one's impact, shares a personal anecdote about growing up in Queens in a small apartment and family dinner conversations, and honors teachers for their often exhausting but vital role in making a difference.
Chapters
The most incredible thing about teachers is their ability to have what? Impact. What's that word? Impact. Twice as loud. Impact. Thank you. Impact. This was what was missing for me when I woke up in the morning and I put my feet on the floor. I was making plenty of money and I was miserable. I didn't have an impact. I couldn't see the impact of my work. And I grew up in a house. We grew up in Queens, New York, in a tiny little apartment. I shared a room the size of a closet with my brother. But we had a happy house. And my dad was a civil servant, and he did wonderful work. And we would sit around the dinner table sometimes at night, three hours, you know, playing records. You guys. Anybody remember what a record is? Check this out. We used to stack them up. Remember there was like six and seven high, and they would drop, and the next one would drop, and the next one would drop. And we'd sit at that table three hours sometimes at dinner. And it wasn't because the food was great. I apologize, Mom. It wasn't about the meal. It was about the conversation. Right? About the conversation of impact, of influence, of. My dad didn't use the word influence. It was about making a difference. And all of you are here and why you're special and why we want to honor you and why we want you to honor yourself. Why success for all wants you to honor yourself is because you are doing. You're doing such magnificent work, rare work in the world. You're having an impact and you're making a difference. Yes. It's not always easy to own that either. Having an influence, making a difference, because it comes with responsibility, and it can be exhausting.
