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I had assumed ‘a man’s character is his fate’ meant if my students worked hard they would get good grades, and if they were lazy they would fail—but any idiot could have seen that interpretation. It took no thought whatsoever, and it isn’t at all what Joe was trying to teach me. No, what Joe meant was this: my character shapes what my students become, and what they become is my fate. I began to see teaching in a whole new light. From that day forward, I knew everything that happened to my students would haunt me or bless me—and I began to teach as if my happiness depended on their happiness, my successes depended on their successes, and their world was the most important part of my world.

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