A Teacher a Day Keeps the Troubles Away

Virginia teacher Arthur Harris has greeted elementary school children for decades.

Arthur Harris and team lead the pledge of allegiance at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School in Alexandria, Va.

THINK BACK ON WHAT IT was like to be 6 years old, leaving the warmth of home and family each day for the chaos of elementary school.

Now imagine that every morning a teacher is waiting on the school steps to greet you and hundreds of other children by name, with a joke and a handshake thrown in.

At Douglas MacArthur Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia, Arthur Harris has been a towering presence for more than 30 years. At age 67, he could have followed his wife, also a teacher, into retirement years ago. Instead, every day, rain or shine, he changes children's lives, simply by saying hello.

“Good morning, Tye, how you doing this morning?” he said, handing out high-fives on an overcast morning. “Come on, Gabby, let’s go to school, girl!” “Camden, you have a super day!”

For MacArthur students, Harris is gym teacher, father figure, mentor and friend. He is always cheerful, calm and low-key. He misses no one as children stream by. He asks after absent brothers and sisters and reminds children who depend on school meals to eat breakfast. Harris has a kind word for everyone, recognizing that growing up isn’t easy for any child regardless of family background.

He is also an important presence in the community. He attends Little League games and dance recitals, often running into students, former students and their families. His relationships promote a sense of belonging that extends across generations and far beyond school grounds.

Harris attributes his decision to pursue teaching to his own high school basketball coach, who took him to his first professional basketball game and a wrestling match. “I wasn’t a star on the team,” Harris says. “He treated us all like stars.”

Today, he models that same behavior, hoping to be a constant source of support and encouragement for the thousands of students he has greeted over his four-decade career in Alexandria schools.

Researchers have found that teachers like Harris have a significant impact on the lives of their students. A caring adult matters more to children than anything that happens in the classroom, says Clayton Cook, the John W. and Nancy E. Peyton Faculty Fellow in Child and Adolescent Wellbeing at the University of Minnesota.

Cook has examined what happens when a cheerful, upbeat teacher greets students as they enter class. His study of 203 children in 10 classrooms, published in 2018, found that welcoming students with kind words at the classroom door increased their engagement in classwork by 20 percentage points and decreased disruptive behavior by 9 percentage points, adding an hour of instructional time over a 5-hour school day. It is just one of thousands of studies reinforcing the same message, he says.

Adults who take the time to get to know students, take an interest in their activities and show that they care instill confidence and self-esteem. They model social and emotional skills that, ultimately, are the foundation for self-regulation and the best predictors of life success.

“The vast majority of problems we see in child development are explained by a handful of environmental conditions,” Cook says. “Overly harsh and punitive discipline. Environments that lack opportunities to grow.”

In other words, the trouble with children is often adults. The quickest way to assure that a child develops emotional well-being and a healthy sense of self is to surround him or her with adults who show they care, Cook says.

“We need to scale up the Mr. Harrises of the world,” he says.

There aren’t many people like her father, says Harris’ daughter, Brittany, 32, a dental hygienist who is working toward her master’s degree at Old Dominion University. “When I ask him, how was school, he always has the same answer: ‘It was the best day ever,’” she says.

“If I’m having a bad day, or I’m confused about something,” she says, “I always call my dad. … He always reminds you of what’s going well, so you that you don’t focus so much on what’s going wrong.”

Debbie Thompson, a former principal at the school, says students often seek out Harris for advice, knowing they can find him in the gym office. “When I had a bad day,” she says, “I’d sometimes go there too and vent before heading back to my office.”

Harris is still in touch with many former students, his daughter says, including one whose mother asked him to intervene when her son hit a rough patch in third grade. At the time, Harris was doing double duty, working in the city’s recreation program on weekends.

“I would take him to the gym, along with as many of his friends as I had seat belts for,” he says.

The student is now in his mid-30's with a son and daughter of his own, both of whom were also in Harris' class. Each summer, they drop by for an afternoon of grilled steaks or burgers on Harris' deck.

Ask Harris about the lives he's changed and he'll direct you to any number of emails and letters, some tacked to the bulletin board above his desk.

The letters are filled with gratitude:

“I can still remember that day when you pulled me aside after the mile race and told me that I had talent as a runner. I don't think you knew that day how your words and encouragement would change my life. After being teased in elementary school and told that I would never amount to anything in sports, your words always stayed with me. You let me believe in myself.”

“Now I am teaching elementary school Spanish (and) I am leading an after-school running games program. I hope to inspire my students the way you inspire me. Thank you doesn't begin to explain it. You are an inspiration to me.”

From an appreciative mother, whose daughter, now a successful attorney, relied on crutches to walk:

"Thank you so much for the wonderful and successful year you have given (our daughter). This was the first time in four years that anyone took the time and effort to let her participate in PE. She has just loved it and you made her feel a part of the class. We were all very proud of her physical fitness award."

Finally, from a student:

“Dear Mr. Harris, thank you for always helping me and making me a stronger person. I appreciate that you always support me in all of my sports or anything else I’m involved in…I hope you know that you’re the best teacher in the whole wide world, and I think everybody knows that! Every morning when you say hello, it lights up my world and makes me feel Spectacular! You are the most kind sweet person I know.”