Retired teacher writes letters to former students at graduation one last time


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PLEASANT GROVE — Any teacher can tell you what made each of their classes special.

Barbara Langford can tell you what made each of her students special.

"I just see all their cute little faces and they're just amazing,” said Langford while looking through one of the many scrapbooks she has made of her classes. "I would just keep a little picture of the class."

In her 17-year career spent mostly at Manila Elementary School in Pleasant Grove, Langford estimates she has taught more than 500 students in 4th and 5th grades.

"I've even went to visit every child. I've gone to every child's home. I could always learn so much from those visits. Their habits, their interests, their families. I just learned a lot of things,” said Langford.

She felt, if she got to know her students home life, she could understand how they needed to learn at school.

"Teaching is just something that you really have to have your heart in,” said Langford. “I was committed to developing relationships.”

Langford even wrote letters to her students when they graduated.

Not from elementary school. But high school.

"This is the way I wanted to show that they're great people. That they can do great things,” said Langford.

It’s also what makes this year's Pleasant Grove High School graduating class the hardest of them all.

You see, Langford stopped teaching class eight years ago.

This year's graduating class is the last class she had.

That means this year’s letters are the last she'll ever write to former students.

"I knew it was coming up and it hit me on Monday and I’m like, ‘It's graduation week and I have to get this going,’” said Langford.

There was no way she was going to miss this class.

"Kids just need to be loved. They need to know they're important, that they're precious. That they matter,” she said.

Langford even puts brand-new, crisp dollar bills in all her letters.

She calls them a “lucky buck.”

Students have thanked her and wrote letters back.

A few have even sent gifts.

Maybe it's because Langford started teaching later in life, when she was 36 years old.

Or maybe it was because her daughter had a teacher who was so mean to students, Langford became a teacher so she could treat students the complete opposite.

Whatever it was that caused her to start writing letters and making scrapbooks of her classes, now, after all of them have graduated, they're priceless.

"If they weren't laughing and having fun and smiling, then we weren't learning things,” said Langford. "They don't quite understand how I feel yet. Someday they will."

It's what's left from a teaching career where she made a difference in her students’ lives for the better.

"I heard back from so many of my former students and friends and people, and so many of them said, ‘I still have my lucky buck,’” said Langford with a laugh.

It's the little things we all remember.

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