5TH GRADE TEACHERS ARE CREDITED WITH RECOGNIZING THE POTENTIAL WITHIN BOTH BARACK OBAMA & VLADIMER PUTIN AND ENCOURAGING BOTH TO BECOME ALL THEY WERE BORN TO BE!
5TH GRADE TEACHERS ARE CREDITED WITH RECOGNIZING THE POTENTIAL WITHIN
BOTH
BARACK OBAMA & VLADIMER PUTIN
AND
ENCOURAGING BOTH TO BECOME ALL THEY WERE BORN TO BE! 
In the words of President Obama today (April 29, 2015) as he honored Shanna Peeples as the 2015 National Teacher of the Year. In doing so, he also paid tribute to his 5th grade teacher, Ms. Hefty.
Ms. Hefty & President Obama
“I credit my education to Ms. Mabel Hefty just as much as I would any institution of higher learning.
When I entered Ms. Hefty’s fifth-grade class at Punahou School in the fall of 1971, I was just a kid with a funny name in a new school, feeling a little out of place, hoping to fit in like anyone else.
The first time she called on me, I wished she hadn’t. In fact, I wished I were just about anywhere else but at that desk, in that room of children staring at me.
But over the course of that year, Ms. Hefty taught me that I had something to say — not in spite of my differences, but because of them. She made every single student in that class feel special.
And she reinforced that essential value of empathy that my mother and my grandparents had taught me. That is something that I carry with me every day as President.
This is the simple and undeniable power of a good teacher. This is a story that every single kid in this country, regardless of background or station in life, should be able to tell.”
Vladimer Putin
“From first and eighth grade, Vladimir Putin studied at School No. 193. As he recalls, he was a troublemaker, not a Pioneer.”
Vera Gurevich – Putin’s Elementary School Teacher
“His teacher, Vera Gurevich, recalls, ‘In the fifth grade, he still hadn’t found himself yet, but I could feel the potential, the energy and the character in him. I saw that he had a great deal of interest in language; he picked it up easily. He had a very good memory and an agile mind.
I thought, something good will come of this boy, so I decided to give him more attention, to distract him from the boys on the streets.’
Until the sixth grade, Vladimir Putin was not very interested in studying, but his teacher Vera Gurevich saw that he could do better and get higher grades.
She met with his father asking him to influence his son. It did not help much, but Vladimir Putin himself radically changed his attitude toward his studies when he was in the sixth grade.
In the sixth grade, Vladimir Putin decided that he needed to achieve something in life, so he began getting good grades, which came easily to him. He was allowed to join the Young Pioneers organisation, and almost immediately became the head of a Pioneer detachment in his class.” (http://eng.putin.kremlin.ru/bio)
