Mark Twain once said, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.”

Teaching, as many professions, can be a thankless job, so a little appreciation can go a long way. Especially when it’s at the biggest sports stage in the world.

So when I received an invitation to go to a brunch honoring educators in Indianapolis, at the Super Bowl XLVI site — part of the Super Learning in a Super State program — it was a no-brainer. I love football, especially the Indianapolis Colts, and mixing that with my other passion sounded great.

It turned out to be a heartwarming reminder of how important educators’ work is and how much influence we can have.

Mark Schlereth, NFL analyst and former Washington Redskins player, encouraged educators with stories of his learning life. Former Colt Bill Brooks and other former players contributed.

Schlereth, who is dyslexic, talked about his struggles to read in school. A junior high journalism teacher humiliated him by forcing him to read from a newspaper in front of the class. After politely pleading the teacher to pick someone else, he went to the front of the class. And struggled. And stammered. And finally made his way through the first sentence.

That’s enough, Schlereth told us that the teacher said. He was finished because he was too dumb to go on.

Thankfully, that wasn’t his last impression of education. Another teacher saw potential in Schlereth and helped him to reach his potential in reading.

Now he’s an avid reader. He considers himself a “wordsmith,” underlining words he doesn’t understand in articles so he can look up their meanings later. He carries a speaking dictionary and a notebook with new words that he can review.

Now, his son struggles to appreciate the joys of education, and Schlereth hopes that his son’s teachers will inspire him in a similar way.

“I really appreciate all that you do,” he said. “Please don’t give up on kids like me.”

Those at the Saturday brunch were given a gift bag of trinkets with the “Super Learning in a Super State” logo, but I think that many of us took away more than that. Sure, the dignitaries at this brunch hadn’t gone to most of our classes and validated what we did on a day-to-day basis. But when there’s a huge force like the Super Bowl in town, and some of that force is used to lift up teachers for what they do, it can have a major impact.

Maybe one that we’ll live on for more than a couple of months.