Mrs Thompson and the boy named Teddy

Mrs Thompson and the boy named Teddy

TL;DR Summary

  • An emotional story about a troubled young child in elementary school whose entire life is changed by a caring teacher is widely shared on social media, every year.
  • The young child goes onto become a physician and seeks out the teacher that had a profound influence on his life.
  • Shared on Facebook for the umpteenth time.
  • It is a great story but it is actually a fictional story published in 1974.

Glurge: A touching tale about a troubled boy named Teddy Stoddard and the teacher who turned his life around.

Source: Teddy Stoddard : snopes.com
Of course, many great teachers have big influences on their students.
As a work of fiction, this is a great story (click through the link to read it). Sharing it as a cute work of fiction is fine, but we have not seen it shared that way!
But why share it as if it is a true story? This is perplexing, as if people who share it want it to be true and by wanting it to be true, it then becomes true. Or perhaps some are virtue signaling, showing others that they think teachers are important (they are, of course).
Thanks to social media, the story will live on forever creating a new “fact” out of thin air.
 

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