8 Quick Questions for Deborah Roberts

ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts, 62, has curated a new collection of essays, Lessons Learned and Cherished: The Teacher Who Changed My Life, which includes stories from celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Jenna Bush Hager, Brook Shields, Octavia Spencer and Spike Lee. They share personal essays about how teachers inspired them, changed their lives and helped them achieve their success.

Which teacher changed your life?

I am a product of the Deep South. I came out of segregated schools through fourth grade. The next year, fifth grade, my English teacher was Mrs. Dorothy Hardy. Mrs. Hardy was a very prim, proper, classic Southern teacher — starch dresses, pantyhose, sensible shoes, white hair, nail polish that was red and impeccable — and she was very no-nonsense. She didn’t crack a smile. She set the bar high, and I wanted to rise to it. I really worked extra hard. One time she was going through the classroom and looking at papers, and she complimented mine: “You work really hard. You’re a smart girl. You’re going to go very far.” Something in me shifted. I thought, Wow, this teacher, who is very, very tough and demanding, thinks that I’ve got something on the ball. Right then, a light bulb went off. She ignited something in me, to want to be better, to want to be smarter, to want to be stronger. I credit that moment with setting me on a path. She represented excellence. I decided at that moment I wanted to reach for excellence.

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What was your motivation behind the book?

Like any journalist, of course, [I’m motivated by] what things spark a passion in me. What things am I noticing? Of course, during and after the pandemic, I was noticing teachers who were saying they felt disrespected, disregarded, discouraged. Not only did I think this is a great topic, but this is an opportunity to basically give teachers their due. This is a love letter in my view. It’s a reminder. I didn’t set out with some big noble purpose. I just thought it was a very interesting topic because every time I would talk to people, they would light up with stories about their teachers. I thought this might be a step towards having a national conversation to remind teachers that we treasure and value them, but also to remind us that we need to give teachers space and room to be who they can be and do what they can do for our children. And not to ask them to do all those extraordinary Herculean things that nobody ever set out to do as a teacher. Teachers should just be given the space to be mentors and guides and inspirations. Hopefully, if nothing else, this will ignite a conversation.

Which celebrity’s story surprised you or touched you the most?

Roberts’ new book features celebrity essays honoring inspirational teachers.

Penguin Random House

Will Reeve, son of Christopher and Dana Reeve — who I’ve known for a very long time because I worked with his mom, Dana, years ago —  surprised me in a way, because I didn’t really know his story. I just reached out to him because I ran into him at Good Morning America one day and I thought, Huh, a much younger person than some of the others I’d interviewed recently. I just was sort of going along and taking the notes when we were talking, but when he told me the story about his teacher, Mr. Barrett, who essentially was kind of a surrogate parent when he was losing both of his parents, I just stopped dead in my tracks and I had to fight back tears, because who knew a teacher could not only have that role of inspiring you, but also kind of stand in the breach and leave an impression because he did that monumental thing that you needed at that moment to help you deal with a loss of a parent. So that one really caught me off guard in an emotional way. Oprah just gave me such joy because she was so generous with her time, talking about Mrs. Duncan who many of us had heard her talk about on her show over the years. But she dug a little deeper, and when she told me the story about seeing Mrs. Duncan in the grocery store as a kid [and thought] … teachers go grocery shopping. I laughed out loud, and it just was a pleasant moment, because we can all relate to seeing our teachers outside of the building and feeling almost like you just met Santa Claus.