Musings on Teacher Appreciation Week

I have mixed emotions about Teacher Appreciation Week especially at this moment in 2021. I am an educator and have been in this profession for 25 years.  I use the word educator instead of teacher as a way to falsely elevate or consider that the enterprise/action of “teaching” is not limited to professional educators, youth workers and community workers who impact the lives of young people daily.  Parents teach. Neighbors teach. Religious leaders teach.  There was also a moment in America over a year ago where parents and community members gave teachers A LOT of love.  This was an enormous opportunity for the professional educator.  It was an honest moment for parents and caregivers; if dealing with my own child for two hours a day is hard, dealing with 30 to 35 children a day for 7 hours is “the Lord’s work”.  As an English educator and teacher/coach of educators, this perspective begs an additional set of questions.  First and foremost being: Do we really appreciate teachers as humans and professionals? Followed by a longer list of wonderings: Does everything that has transpired over the last 5 years, 10 years 400 years actually say we appreciate teachers, schools and public education? Do our communities show their appreciation by making sure those that care for, help raise and teach their little ones have a living wage or even a head of household salary (daycare facilities), the salary and working conditions of a professional (a large percentage of teachers have multiple degrees, additional coursework and certifications like a software engineer or a lawyer with multiple specialties), a space to work and grow but also a space to be held accountable based on the real expectations of the families and communities for the job? 

We (the royal “we” and the global community) asked educators to learn, master and implement a new skill and platform to have continuity and community with young people and families.  This was done with the full knowledge that many communities did not have the infrastructure to support those switches, the hardware to support the adults responsible ; the software to deploy to engage, care and educate young people nor the structures to support educators who have co-morbidities, inter-generational households, children of their own to care for and partners who also need support.  Then came the data, then came the examples, then came the protests where communities wanted schools open.  Those teachers, the caregivers and communities of our young people, wanted educators back in buildings; were they appreciated then?  Then came the studies and public health officials; buildings are safe, children don’t spread the virus, why won’t you go back to the building; were they appreciated then?  Last came the companies, our people can’t come back to work if their children aren’t in school; women left the workforce in droves as the predominant caregiver for school age children the US; the country can’t get back to normal, if schools aren’t open; were they appreciated then?  

In the end, we teachers and educators show up and do our best (hopefully and a majority of us). Those that have been taught, coached or interacted with me know that I think we always need more great teachers but we need great leaders to create spaces where teachers can thrive and in most of our circumstances we need society to change to provide more than the basics to families to have young people ready to learn when they arrive via Google meet or the front door. (Which for the record includes but is not limited to-universal basic income, universal healthcare, ending food deserts, limited prison abolition esp for this in jail on marijuana charges, de-funding the police to include mental health care as a part of universal healthcare, racial equity, racial and gender pay/wealth equity and reparations). My work in schools and with educators has always centered around the humanity of every person in the room, building, school and city.  It is rooted in a quote from James Baldwin, “We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”

Ultimately it is my hope that school will never be the same again when the pandemic wanes and ends. Ultimately, we all found out that the most important things that school does have very little to do with teaching and learning.  Schools (of all kinds, shapes, sizes and levels) provide a space to build community, to care for young people (up through graduate school and beyond), to provide necessary services to those in need, to feed, to provide counseling and mental health services but mainly to build community.  We all missed each other for the past year, and I missed the camaraderie, intellect and care of my teachers and my education colleagues.  I appreciate you and thank you for your service.