District 112 Teacher Honored With Golden Apple

The first time I learned about the was when I was 10 and I was going to be a fifth grader at . My teacher that year was Paul Grant. My parents were very happy about this. I was happy about this because he ran the lunchtime football league and I loved the lunchtime football league. They were happy about this because he'd won the Golden Apple Award. 

I didn't understand how special that award was until after I'd been in his class a while. If this was the award that recognized Mr. Grant, it must be a really great award.

Through the years I got to meet a couple more Highland Park teachers who won the award and a couple who came close but didn't win it.  The fact that the ones who came close were really good teachers too only reaffirmed the prestige of the award.

So hearing that District 112 has fills me with joy.  While I don't know Howie Templer well, I did have the pleasure of helping him at the library a few times when I used to work there, so hearing that he won the award didn't really surprise me. 

Rep. Robert Dold (R-Kenilworth) called it "the Academy Awards for teachers."  I think that actually understates its importance. With or without an Oscar we know that Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep are fabulous actors. Without the Golden Apple, we might not know about some truly fabulous teachers like Mr. Templer.