June 1st, 2022—“Teachers Matter”. I invite you to pause, reread that phrase and listen for deep meaning; “Teachers Matter”. How have teachers mattered in your life? How does your head and your heart answer that question? Which teachers from Kindergarten through higher education invited you to become the best version of yourself? Which teachers offered kindness when caring was needed? Which teachers offered tough words and jarring critiques when the truth needed to be told about your actions or your potential? Who would you be today without teachers in your life? Teachers Matter.
I raise this question for many reasons. It is the end of the school year and summer is upon us. The Memorial Day weekend was a time to remember soldiers killed in service to America and its ideals. It seems also fitting to pause and remember the teachers who give so much during the year in service of their call to care for, educate, and heal the hearts, minds and bodies of students. They give of their time, their talents, their finances, their heart; they give deeply of themselves even to the point of exhaustion. And in some cases, as the recent school massacre in Uvalde shows, teachers die in the act of protecting their students. Teachers Matter.
I’ve been thinking of the phrase Teachers Matter because it is the last line of a crowd sourced poem compiled by NPR poet Kwame Alexander from over 300 responses to the question of how have teachers impacted your life. The full poem can be accessed at NPR-Who Will Clean Out the Desks? The poem is “dedicated to all teachers, but especially to Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles, fourth grade teachers who lost their lives at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde”.
Teachers Matter.
Here are few lines from the poem that spoke to my teacher heart.
teachers make light go / where darkness has resided
Who are these teachers who are the bringers of light for you? Who are the teachers who helped you navigate the various forms of darkness that make up your lived-experience? The poem names several,
Mrs. Tucker who wrote, "Amy is like a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day" on my first- grade report card, / Mr. Wilke / who taught Vocational Electronics / at Romeo High / School in Michigan. / Mrs. Hunney / didn't do it for the money. / She saw I had potential, / even with dyslexia I could be Presidential.
In my schooling I name my high school physics teacher Mr. Koch who saw more potential in me than any of my previous teachers. He took the additional step to call attention to my gifts and planted the seeds of the intellect that flourish today. I also name Father Reimer, who although not a formal educator, taught me to follow the playful ways of the Spirit. A sense of the transcendent self that guides my practice in the classroom. Mr. Koch and Father Reimer are just two of many teachers who mattered because they made it clear that I mattered. Who would you name? What is the indelible legacy of their presence in your life?
Teachers are there despite it all / Teachers make love / out of everything.
As all good teachers know in the core of their being, teaching is hard hard work, physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. To be successful means going beyond technical proficiency to include the deeper work of the heart. And in the act of opening the heart to the passion of subject matter or compassion for a student in need, teaching becomes a risky and vulnerable profession. As with Love, good teaching requires giving without the precondition of Love in return; it is unconditional. Because of the daily challenges, teachers need support and care from self and others in order to return to the classroom year after year after year.
A teacher is nothing when stripped of their power / As is a train when emptied of fuel / Censored and idle” / At the end of the day / Who will help the teachers prepare for the next / Who will make a home for the heavy hearts, / for The sacred ones who can't stop thinking about those 19 desks. / Who will hold them in kind and caring arms / when the world is not so beautiful.
There are tough times in schools these days. Teachers are on the front lines of many social, political and ecological challenges. On a daily basis they try to reconcile the competing, and sometimes violent, interests of parents, school boards and the wider society. Teachers by their very nature are problem solvers and pragmatist, but the challenges they face seem insurmountable, in part, because society can’t see its way through the fog of confusion, misinformation and conflicting values. And yet teachers do what they have done for ages, care and attend to the heart, minds and souls of learners. Kwame Alexander ends the poem with a question, who will care for teachers?
I say, Let it be us. / Because teachers matter.
For all the teachers out there, you matter, because you care, because you strive to bring light into the world, and because you see your students for who they are, shinning souls of unlimited potential even when they might not see those gifts themselves. You matter.
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