Back to School

Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well! This week started a new transition for us, as Scoot started school. Her first day was filled with excitement, nervousness, and a little fear, but I am happy to say that we are LOVING her new school! It’s amazing the change I see in things, just one week in. We live very close to her school, so Scoot and I walk to and from school each day. It’s a great way to spend time with one another, and get some exercise too! I will say, I will be so glad when fall weather kicks in, though! All the excitement of back to school got me thinking, though, and this week, I’m going to be sending out my appreciation for teachers everywhere. It’s a line of work that is so often taken for granted, and I simply can’t understand why.

Since I was in high school, I’ve been told, “Oh, you should be a teacher, you’d be so good at it!” While I appreciate the faith in me, I’ve also always known there’s no way I’d make a good teacher. I love kids, don’t get me wrong, but the thought of being in a classroom with 20-30 kids all day is something I’ve always known I couldn’t do. To me, teaching is a calling. You have to WANT to do it. It’s one of the most thankless jobs we have, right up there with firefighters and police officers. We rarely stop to think of what our society would be like without them. Sure, there’s homeschooling, but not every family is cut out for that. Teachers are one of our key resources, and without them, our entire education system would fall apart.

I am sure there are a lot of people that think that teaching is a sweet gig. That work is only from 8-3, weekends and summers off. However, the truth is that there is so much work that goes into being a teacher before students ever see the classroom. Teachers take time to build lesson plans, create exciting ways of learning for students, and design classrooms that will optimize learning. All this takes time, as well as research, and resources that most times the teacher pays for out of his or her own pocket. The goal is to create a classroom that is a safe haven, and a place that makes it fun to learn. It’s a chance for a teacher to exert his or her personality on a room, and make it warm and inviting for the students. Schools don’t pay for this, but the teachers do.

While teachers are providing all these things for their classroom, making lesson plans, meeting with parents, they are missing time with their own kids, if they have them. Teachers sacrifice first days of school, parent teacher conferences, and other things just to take care of their school kids. I know that’s not the case for all teachers, or that it happens every time, but it does happen. That’s a bittersweet feeling, wanting to be both with your own children and your school children. In so many ways, teachers are critical to the welfare of the children they teach. During the school year, it’s the teachers that spend the bulk of a day with children, not parents, and the lessons they learn in a classroom go far beyond just letters and arithmetic. Educators help to mold who a child will be, by providing structure, a helping hand, or even just an ear. In my lifetime, I’ve been blessed with some incredible teachers, including some that have absolutely made a huge difference in my life when I was going through tough times.  To me, they taught me so much more than just lessons from textbook. They taught me compassion. How to navigate life when it gets leery. They taught me about striving for more, and how to overcome obstacles. They fostered a sense of loving to learn, something that still exists in me to this day. Especially when I was in high school, there was one teacher that would sit and talk to me after school or whenever I felt overwhelmed about school, or home, or even problems with friends. She even allowed me and a friend to use her classroom afterschool so that we could choreograph our senior dance for our dance class. She was a fierce defender of her students, and we always knew she cared and would do anything to help us succeed.

That’s the thing about educators. For the most part, they genuinely love what the do, and go above and beyond to do what they can to help their students. I’ve had teachers spend entire afternoons trying to help me learn calculus (a losing battle!) or algebra. I’ve had teachers providing tough love when my senior thesis went missing. In college, I had professors that made me look outside of myself and ask the question, “why should I care about this? When you can answer that, you know what you’re writing about.”  These men and women pushed me, making me work harder and want more for myself. I wanted  not just good grades, but their respect. Isn’t that what every good teacher wants? Their students’ love and respect?

In North Carolina, teacher pay is pathetic. We demand so much from our educators, and yet, we refuse to offer them the pay they deserve. Because of this, our schools suffer. Our education suffers. Most of all, our children suffer, because there are teachers that have to move out of state in order to do what they love and still provide for their families. Currently, NC ranks 39^th in the nation for teacher pay.  We are simply not putting the equity back into our education system, and as a result our entire state suffers. If teachers aren’t paid their worth (and truly, they aren’t) then they can’t put money back into the economy. They can’t afford to put more into their classroom instruction. On top of low salaries, teachers have to buy classroom materials, because the state doesn’t provide them. Funding for schools differs radically, depending on the economic demographics of different districts, and this occurs all over our country. Schools in richer areas obviously have the best education systems, with up to date technology, newer books, and better schools. Poorer systems, however, suffer. Their tech is outdated, they have out of date books, and their school structures are in far worse shape. There are no checks and balances, and if you happen to have children in these poorer areas, then they have to work ten times harder just to get on the same level as children that happen to be born in the more affluent areas. A teacher can only use the resources he or she has available, and if they are already starting out behind the curve, then this absolutely affects how they can educate.

Teachers spend an incredible amount of time with students and preparing for students. As a result, they can be one of the first people to see when there are problems, and then relay that to parents. A parent’s support can be so important to the wellbeing of the student, as well as the parent/teacher/student relationship. If a child is taught not to respect teachers, or if parents foster a belief in a child that they are always right or can do no wrong, it makes a teacher’s life harder.  Teaching and parenting must go hand in hand, for the sake of the child, and if that doesn’t happen, there’s a breakdown that occurs. Parents need to respect teachers, and understand what important figures educators are in the lives of their children.

When I asked what teachers wanted people to know about teaching, the number one response was “teachers love teaching, and they love their students.” Despite long hours, hardship, low pay, and time away from family, teachers teach simply because they love it. They make a difference, every single day, in ways big and small for students of all ages. Educators deserve our respect, and so much more. We need to treat them with the reverence they deserve, and support them whenever they need help. After all, they are helping to build our future.

That’s all for this week. Next week, I’ll start a short series talking about another difficult subject, suicide. If you want to contribute in any way, I would appreciate your thoughts/experiences. Thank you for reading, and if you like this blog, please share with your friends. Until next week!