To All The Teachers- Even Those At Home
What. A. Year.
It’s Teacher Appreciation Week- and I have mixed feelings about it. My kids have had some AMAZING teachers this year. Their music teacher in particular is amazing and I have watched her interact with my kids and have fun with them even through a camera. They have a brand new teacher who started mid-year (Bless her! how hard!) who works hard to make sure even kids at home can see what’s going on in the classroom, and on and on. The teachers I work with- I have watched them pivot and move and figure out new ways of teaching more often than I can count.
But I think there’s two groups of people who have been overlooked this school year: parents and students.
Parents who have zero background in teaching- who have attempted to do it from home. Who have struggled to do it while also working, while trying to keep bills paid, while having hours cuts and jobs lost. While crying in the bathroom to keep their kids from seeing, and while trying to not lash out at partners who they love but can also get on your last nerve when they are the only other adult around. While being the only adult for their kids, and feeling the incredible loneliness that comes when you realize there is no one else to share the burden and the joy of parenting.
Parents who are advocating for their kids who might be a little different. Who have to run against schools who maybe don’t understand their kid. Or maybe don’t know a lot about IEPs, or just don’t have the resources to help. Or who aren’t help to cope with the emotional toll that this year has given to kids, parents, and teachers. Or who don’t realize that perhaps a loved one has died, because the child cannot talk about it.
We can celebrate students. My GOODNESS! It’s one thing for adults to pivot and move and change… but for kids? Granted, I know that kids are many times more flexible than adults but our children have done an amazing job of just making it through this. I have to wonder how many children will end up with PTSD or anxiety as a result of this year?
Along with this being Teacher Appreciation Week it’s also Mental Health Awareness Month. I think we can celebrate our amazing teachers while also saying parents and even students have done an amazing job this year as well. I think we can all extend one another more empathy. I think we parents can stop trying to compete with each other about who is the best- and stop seeing one another as the enemy. A trend I’m seeing emerge is where parents take screenshots of things other parents say and send it in to schools- really? This isn’t a competition, and we shouldn’t be trying to get other parents in trouble. I think further thoughts on this will come sometime later. Have some compassion for one another.
Asking when did the teacher/parent/student relationship become so combative is like asking if the chicken or the egg came first. I kind of think it happened not because of generational change, as some like to say, but when we started treating classrooms like corporations with certain goals to be met. When schools became a breeding ground for competition and which one was the best. It’s not just about numbers and grades and which colleges you get into, but also which place encourages your children to have compassion and care for others. It’s the intangibles that can’t be put on paper or in a social media post.
My prayer is that the end of this school year brings about some perspective in all of this, and that perhaps so many of us- parents, teachers, students- can all find ways to work together even better. May EACH of you have a Happy Teacher Appreciation Week- because we can all learn from one another.
Love,
Molly Kate
