A Heartfelt Thank You To Educators

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected virtually every aspect of our lives. It has changed the way we work and the way we socialize. It has caused many of us to rethink our relationship with the world around us, and consider the impact we want to have on it. Most significantly, it has threatened our health and safety, and changed how we go about protecting ourselves and our families.

In the world of education, the effects of COVID-19 have been striking – but perhaps most striking of all is the degree to which teachers have risen to the occasion.

By no means have the COVID-19-related educational challenges been limited to teachers: Parents have had to learn how to navigate home-schooling while often working full-time themselves; students, meanwhile, have had to adapt to online-only classes, forgoing important in-person experiences like walking across a graduation stage.

But throughout all of these challenges, teachers have truly gone above and beyond.

They have given up their vacations. They have redesigned their lesson plans from the ground up to meet the demands of a new teaching format and adjusted academic calendars. They have worked overtime to become proficient in brand-new tools, technologies and techniques, doing the best they possibly can to deliver quality outcomes for their students under the circumstances. They have spent countess additional hours coaching students and parents through their own challenges. The list goes on and on.

For all of these heroic efforts and more – and there are many more, I’m sure – I’d like to express my immense gratitude to each and every teacher working today.

Long before this crisis began, there was discussion throughout the education sector about how the rise of new educational technologies might change the role of the teacher. Now, having seen our education system move almost entirely “digital” virtually overnight, at least one large piece of that question has been answered: The role of teachers, though it might evolve, has in no way been diminished. Even as digital learning has taken center stage over the past several weeks, teachers have remained just as important as ever, if not more so. The relationship between student and teacher remains absolutely critical. It always has, and it always will.

This hints at a larger truth: While this current pandemic is unprecedented, perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised that our teachers have played such an out-sized role in helping us to navigate it. Their jobs have never been easy, but teachers have always been there for us – helping to coach, encourage and advise students and parents alike, often providing both academic and emotional support. The connections that teachers foster with their students are of course crucial for fostering academic growth, but they are also crucial for fostering social and emotional well-being and strengthening our social fabric.

When students and teachers finally return to the school halls and classrooms, we must remember the critical role that teachers played in helping us to navigate these challenging times, but we must also remember the critical role that they play even in times of normalcy.

Please join me in thanking all of the teachers in our lives. Thank them for everything that they have done during this crisis, but also thank them for everything they have always done for our students, our families, and our communities. Our teachers are absolutely crucial – and it shouldn’t take a pandemic to see why.

During this challenging time, our editors continue to publish ideas, resources and inspiration for educators on our K-12 and higher education blogs. We hope you find them useful.