A Thank You to Teachers
Many kids wake up on a daily basis and fight to survive and succeed in spite of all the negativity surrounding them. I don’t believe there is a single child who truly doesn’t want to learn. A lot of children may not have anyone in their corner to push them. Sometimes school is the only outlet for many kids, a place where they receive love, get to be themselves and escape the pressures of home.
Many educators are like parents to their students. I speak from firsthand experience since my mother was an educator. She touched the lives of many kids in a teaching career of over 30 years. My sister and I tend to laugh at how we can’t go anywhere with her without someone walking up to her saying she taught them. Many of her former students share stories of the great impact she made on their lives and how well they’re doing as a result of being in her classroom. So many of them call her their mom because she wasn’t just a teacher, but a nurturer. They knew that when they succeeded, she cheered louder than anyone else.
Children need to know that school isn’t something to fear, but to know that it’s a place of excitement. Learning can actually be fun.
Yes, there are a lot things needing to be changed in education, but we also need our children to know that there are a lot of positive things happening. We tend to believe children are naive about adult situations, but children are a lot smarter than we give them credit for.
A child can feel and know when an adult is being genuine or putting on a front. I can recall entering eighth grade and as we walked into class, the teacher immediately told us we were his priority and it was his job to make sure we succeeded. That stuck with me through the entire year because I knew he meant it. I see him from time to time and the exact words he said that day come to mind every occasion I do. It showed me that not only did he educate me, he cared about each of his students individually.
There are many educators with the same mindset as the two teachers I have mentioned here. Many of them don’t get the recognition they deserve because it isn’t what they’re looking for or horrible news outweighs the good. These educators need to be honored and more stories written about them because they make a difference in the lives of our children.
As a parent I appreciate these people, including my mother (who is still teaching) my first grade teacher at Alice Harte, who happened to be the aunt along with my eighth grade teacher, and the many other teachers I haven’t written about. To the teachers who have educated my children and the countless others who may never teach my children, I say “Thank you.”