I found this poem and thought it summed up nicely, how I feel about teaching first grade!

First is Best

Yes, I teach the first grade.
Where else would a handsome and very young man put his arms around me and ask, "Do you know that I love you?"
Where else would I tie so many hair ribbons and belts and daily get to see a style show of pretty dresses and shirts?,
Where else could I wear the same dress day after day and be told each time that it is pretty?
Where else could I walk up and down aisles and have warm hands touch me?
Where else could I have the privilege of wiggling loose teeth and receive a promise that I may pull them when they are loose enough?
Where else could I eat a soiled piece of candy from a grimy little hand and not get ill? (I have to eat it because he watches to see that I do.)
Where else would the future look as bright as it does amid an energetic group to whom nothing is impossible?
Where else could I guide the first letter formations of a chubby little hand that may some day write a book or an important document?
Where else could I forget my own aches and pains because of so many cut fingers, scratched knees, bumped heads and broken hearts that need care?
Where else could I forget taxes and even "the state of the nation" because Stevie isn't grasping reading as he should and other methods must be tried?
Where else would my mind have to stay so young as with a group whose attention span is so short that I must always keep a "bag of tricks up my sleeve"?
Where else could I feel so close to my Maker as I do each year when, because of something I have done, little children learn to read?
Yes, I do teach the first grade, Mr. and Mrs. America. And I love it!

by Mrs. Janet Gorell Meyer