You said

Last Friday, we invited you to describe the teacher who influenced you the most. Here are a couple of the responses we received, including our winner, Nancy Worley of Mount Pleasant.

I was raised in mostly rural settings all over the West until I was 11 years old, when my family moved to my mother's hometown, Kansas City, Mo.

This was a large, strange and scary place for a shy kid like me. ... I had never been around or spoken to any African-Americans in my entire life, and there I was plopped in the middle of a class of 40 kids. Only two other kids were white, and within two months they had moved out of the area. ... We went through three or four teachers in the first three months of seventh grade.

The morning I came back from the Thanksgiving holidays, there was a new teacher, a black man. Mr. George Smith greeted us all by name, calling us Miss and Mr., and taught us to treat each other as adults from the beginning. He was able to keep us all excited about learning even though he was teaching at different levels.

... I remember him asking my opinion in class, and I learned not to be afraid to speak up. He even let me teach a class on Native Americans when he learned that was part of my heritage.

... He is the teacher I remember with love and gratitude because he taught me to be colorblind, and that's the best lesson -- ever.

- Laura Perkins, West Ashley

"Everything I needed to know, I learned in kindergarten" -- the import of this was made clear to me this past year when I volunteered in Carol Killingsworth's 5K class at Harbor View Elementary. Her influence was not on me directly but on the 20-plus students in her class.

Because Carol is my sister, I have long been aware of her enthusiasm for and dedication to her career. These qualities are there each time she talks about her classes and about the children who come every year, in the response of parents who request her as their children's teacher, in affirmation from her peers and principal.

As she began this year, she said, "What an important job I have." This sums up her approach to each child who is in her classroom. Early in the year, she recognized each child's abilities, needs, strengths and weaknesses and planned accordingly. When I came on Thursdays, the plan was there -- this group needs to work on learning to share, this group needs to learn to cooperate, these children need to work on numbers, on letters, on comparing, etc., and the area was set up with the appropriate tools to help achieve the goals.

Her firm but gentle manner taught discipline -- being quiet, waiting to talk, taking turns, being kind to others. Even in disruptions, she was calm and positive. I observed as each child matured throughout the year and was prepared for the next step in his/her education always with encouragement from "Mrs. Killingsworth." At the end of the year, each child was recognized for his/her unique achievement.

So to Carol I say thank you for being a positive influence in the lives of so many children. She is one who recognizes and responds to the knowledge that children are our hope for the future.

- Nancy Worley, Mount Pleasant