Opinion | Thank Your Teachers Before It’s Too Late

A 1962 “Twilight Zone” episode starred Donald Pleasence as an elderly prep-school teacher forced to retire after 51 years. Despondent, he laments that he made no difference in his students’ lives. “They all come and go like ghosts. . . . I gave them nothing. . . . I was an abject, dismal failure.”

Then a bell tolls, summoning him back to his classroom, where he meets the ghosts of former students who died heroically—and who have returned to thank him for teaching them about patriotism, courage, loyalty, ethics and honesty. He retires in peace.