Education rally draws good crowd at Grapevine High School

He was overshadowed by Dove Elementary School student Peyton Lain, whose country-tinged rendition of the national anthem could have come from someone much older.

Southlake Town Square developer Frank Bliss of Cooper & Stebbins painted a clear picture of the state of Texas school funding. Then, the highly successful businessman talked about a teacher who changed his life when, by the fifth grade, he had decided he was "stupid" and didn't care about school.

She literally pulled him out of class by the ear and worked with him so that he saw his potential.

Maples, took the podium next, and stole everyone's hearts.

The fifth-grade language arts and social studies teacher suffered a lupus-induced stroke in 1994 that left her unable to walk. She was not expected to live. But Maples ultimately recovered and did walk, though with some difficulty.

Maples talked about a boy she knew when she worked at a school a few years before she became a teacher. Always trouble in class, he had few friends. Maples took the time to get to know him and helped him navigate in the world.

To thank her, he gave her a jar of twigs and leaves that, as it turned out, held the eggs of five beautiful white moths that emerged a few days later.

"I wanted to give you wings, because I noticed you don't walk so good," the child told Maples next time she saw him.

She made the decision to become a teacher that day.