Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
In which I make a lame effort to express my appreciation for teachers
How the hell does one write a post that adequately appreciates teachers? Sorry, but Teacher Appreciation Week is as dumb as Mother’s Day. Really? One day to appreciate mothers? One week to appreciate teachers?
Sheee-it.
Here’s my lame-ass attempt:
For humans, raising little humans is the most important job there is. That means parenting and teaching are the most fundamentally noble and necessary activities humans can engage in.
I put parents and teachers in the same category: They’re developmental partners. People who partner with young ones to support them in growing up, becoming themselves, changing for the better, cultivating the skills they need to be healthy and humane. (Note that “young ones” can be full-grown adults who are returning to school to learn something new.)
It is not easy to be a good developmental partner. Especially when you’re partnering with other people’s children. Which is what teachers do. They’re like parents but totally and absolutely unlike parents. They are charged with providing to children with whom they have absolutely no umbilical or relational connection all the elements that allow those children to grow up sane, smart, and strong.
Elements like
a safe environment — even when some of those very children make the environment unsafe
attention, including the ability to see each of their students clearly and accurately
care, including active interest in each student’s wellbeing and concern when a student isn’t doing well
curiosity, a leaning in to learn more about each student and each group of students: what they’re thinking, how they’re thinking, why they’re thinking that, and, very importantly, what it’s like to be them
tolerance for, embrace of, the wildly different knowledge bases, experiences, backgrounds, strengths, weaknesses, and needs of their students
love of content and love of learning (and teaching) that content
gratitude for the privilege of accompanying precious people on their sometimes rocky paths to becoming
forbearance
modeling of healthy relationships with humans, with ideas and texts, and with the challenges inherent in all relationships of all types
That’s a start. That’s at least part of the work teachers do, in my view. It’s the work I believe way too many parents take for granted, as way too many parents send unhappy, traumatized, abused, neglected, hungry, angry, and sometimes egregiously entitled children to schools to be managed and shaped by teachers when they themselves do not do that work at home. And many parents reserve the right to criticize or blame or attack the teachers when their own children act inappropriately or fail to take their educations seriously.
Which means part of a teacher’s job is to deal with anxious parents — and administrators! — as well. No fun. No fun at all.
So how to appreciate teachers? I guess noticing the impossible job we lay on them is a start. And then thanking them regularly for dealing with our children, who might very well be little shits in the bizarre child mob called a classroom. And supporting them, the teachers, in staying sane and strong in the face of masses of precious young people who use them ruthlessly in their normal — and sometimes off-the-charts disruptive — struggles to grow up.
So: Thank you, teachers. Thank you for bringing your best selves to our children every day and hanging in there with them despite the shit they throw at you. Thank you for believing in the value of your invaluable work. Thank you for seeing our kids’ goodness and wondering about their badness and loving them for all of it. Thank you for the suffering you endure at our students’ hands and for their sakes, and thank you for taking good care of yourselves so you don’t have to give up on us.
If you’re a teacher who does or does not appreciate this lame attempt at appreciating you, leave a comment. What would make you feel truly appreciated?