How Many Teachers Do We have In Our Lives?

As a homeschooling family, we often are told by a well-meaning person that it is good for children to have more than one teacher. I thought about this and wondered about the teachers that have been in our children's lives other than us, his parents. I do believe that there are teachers or mentors everywhere in a child's life (or an adult's life, for that matter) and that learning can take place anywhere at anytime. I know when people make this comment they are referring to a 'classroom' teacher or someone who is going to teach them something they need to know. Homeschoolers do not typically learn in a classroom so we find other teachers for our children in a more 'unconventional' kind of a way, though, actually, I would refer to it as a 'natural way of going about life' kind of a way. I have to think of it that way because that is a big part of how homeschooling families learn! These are a few people that have been teachers in our children's lives:
The Sunday School teacher.
The librarian at Storytime.
The leaders of all the classes, seminars and activities that our children participate in.
The coaches of all the sporting events.
The parents of our children's friends.
The employers of places of work.
The director of the places our children volunteer at.
Our children's grandparents and aunts and uncles.
The gardener and his wife down the road.
It was actually quite fun for me to think about all the teachers that have been a big part of our children's life. I think fondly of them and feel very thankful that we had the opportunity to know them. There are teachers EVERYWHERE! In fact, EVERYONE is a teacher. We can learn something from every single person on this earth!
Sometimes we just have to 'listen'.