When A School Teacher Changed My Outlook On Life

School teachers don’t get the credit they deserve

Andy Murphy
3 min readSep 28, 2024
Photo by Jacob Mejicanos on Unsplash

There is an old story about a teacher who showed his class a glass jar.

“If I fill this jar with 3 large rocks, will it be full?” He asked.

Kind of unimpressed, the class looked at the large rocks, looked at the glass, and came to the conclusion that they would fill the jar.

To confirm their answer, the teacher placed the three large rocks into the jar.

Still uninterested, the students began to wonder what this was all about.

But that was all a part of the school teacher’s plan!

He then took out a large box full of pebbles and once again asked the class: “If I add these pebbles to the jar, will it be full?”

A little confused, the class looked at the pebbles and concluded that their teacher was up to something clever. “Yes but you can’t fool us.” They said.

The teacher smiled. “Now, they are more engaged.” He thought. He placed the pebbles into the jar and watched as they slotted nicely around the three large rocks.

The teacher then took out a bag of sand and asked the class: “If I add this sand to the jar, will it be full?”

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