A few weeks ago, on the tenth anniversary of Mr. Rogers’ death, we offered up a little tribute to the man who touched the lives of just about everyone who reads this website. Needless to say, we remember him fondly, so when Dustin alerted me this morning to a wonderful Mr. Rogers anecdote a Pajiba commenter had recently shared with him, there’s no way I couldn’t post it here.
I hope you’re sitting down because this may be the most Mr. Rogers story you’ll ever here…
Mr. Rogers is a truly incredibly awesome person. We used to write him Christmas stories, and he’d write back every time, and he’d say, “I remember the story you sent me last year. You are growing up so wonderfully, and I am so proud of you.” He is my personal hero, and one of the best humans ever. Basically.
My favorite story about Mr. Rogers (hand to god, this happened!) — my little sister was incredibly shy and didn’t pay attention as often as she could due to hearing and attentional issues. A teacher got really angry at her because she didn’t write her name at the top of a test (I guess it had happened enough times before to really tick this teacher off…) and the teacher called up my sister in front of the class, yelled at her, humiliated her, and ripped up her paper. She was in second grade.
My mom got white-hot furious, and she read an editorial written by Mr. Rogers about the importance of respecting a child’s work, and she wrote him and told him what happened, and that she was at a loss as far as what to tell this teacher.
A few weeks later, the teacher approached my mom and said, “I got a letter from Mr. Rogers.” He wrote her personally, and told her in his kind and gentle way about why she should change her teaching approach. My mom said, “I just didn’t know what to say to you.” The teacher replied, “Well, if Mr. Rogers tells you that you need to change, you listen.”
Fred Rogers, ladies and gentlemen.
Now let’s remember him fondly again with this remix…
And let’s remember him again with 35 facts about him…
(Via Pajiba)