A Poignant Thank-You for Teacher Who Helped Future Attorney Learn English

Ana Reyes is a successful attorney at one of the nation's premier law firms whose practice includes pro bono work for refugees. But she clearly remembers feeling lost and disconnected as a first-grader who only spoke Spanish after moving to America.

Today, she knows she couldn't have made a difference for others without the teacher who spent early-morning hours tutoring Reyes to help her learn English and succeed in school.

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For years, Reyes, now 46, wanted to thank the first-grade teacher who gave her one-on-one attention at a critical time in her life when she had recently arrived in the United States from Spain. Those sessions changed the 6-year-old Reyes from a bored and confused child into a gifted student and altered the trajectory of her life.

With the help of Facebook and a heartfelt letter to the Kentucky commissioner of education, Reyes quickly learned that her teacher's name was Pat Harkleroad, now 77, and tracked her down. After testing negative for COVID-19, they scheduled a reunion in the retired teacher's Louisville home.

As they sat in Harkleroad's living room, Reyes read the letter she sent to the state. By the time she reached the final line — “I would like very much to say thank you and that my life very likely wouldn't have been possible without her” — the retired teacher was wiping away tears before they could roll under her mask.

Establishing a strong connection

A few weeks later on a Zoom call, the two sounded like long-lost friends as they talked about the one-hour early-morning sessions in which Harkleroad taught the young Reyes how to speak, and then read, in English.

"I would help all of my children. That's what I did,” Harkleroad says. “There are teachers out there who work very, very, very hard and are conscientious, who would have done the same thing."

In 1980, though, Louisville did not have many students like Reyes, who lived in Uruguay and Spain for the first five years of her life. Harkleroad did not have any curriculum to guide her or personal experience to draw from. She turned to her colleagues at Wilder Elementary School for advice.

"The consensus was that you start at the beginning like you would a small child — name objects, teach letters and teach colors — and do a tremendous amount of talking and reading,” Harkleroad says.

With the one-on-one attention and the focus on building knowledge slowly, Reyes began to understand English and quickly started reading, the teacher recalled.

As for Reyes, she does not remember the details of the early-morning lessons. She does recall how difficult it was to wake up for them — and how they gave her confidence.