Anna Sharp (August 26, 2011) -For awhile I fancied my daughter a bit of a teacher's pet. Not in the sense that teachers favored her over other students, but that she seemed to truly love her teachers, and the feeling was mutual. Allie's first-ever teacher, Emilie, in Language Stars' Parents and Tots class, showed her so much warmth and affection. Allie instantly connected with her teacher's silly sense of humor and playful personality.

The next year we had to say goodbye to Emilie and enroll in a new class. The teacher, Awatif, seemed nothing like our beloved Emilie. Awatif was firm with a no-nonsense approach. This scared me a little, as Allie's middle name could easily be Nonsense. Also, Awatif had high expectations now that Allie was a little older. Much too high, I thought...she was treating this wild child two-year-old as if she were capable of, like, conversing in French.

"Uh-oh," I remember thinking that first class, as Awatif had everyone put away the toys before introducing the week's learning topic, "Allie's not gonna like this..."

And Allie did not like Awatif. She LOVED her. Starting that day Awatif has been a constant topic of conversation around our house, right up there with Ariel, Nana, and a super cool junior counselor named Charlotte who befriended Allie at summer camp. It's been months since Allie graduated from Awatif's class, but today, for example, she wanted to know "Did it hail at Awatif's house? How do you say "hail" in French?" What is Awatif eating for dinner? I think chicken and broccoli."

Over the past couple of years I've come to realize that Allie is too fond of mischief to ever be your run-of-the-mill teacher's pet, but overall she does seem to genuinely respect her teachers and enjoy learning and school--which I believe is all thanks to two teachers, who although they had different styles, both taught from the exact same place--the heart.