A love letter to our educators

By Mary Kay Roth

Dear educators, far and near:

On Monday, students at Lincoln Public Schools and kids across the country arrive for their first day of school, generally a joyous moment of new shoes and stiff backpacks, photographs and goofy smiles, tears from parents of kindergartners and disbelief from parents of high school seniors.

This year, however, the moment marks what may be the second impossible year of teaching, a time at summer’s end when we hoped life would be better – but just may not be. Undaunted, teachers will inevitably march into their classrooms on Monday morning armed with lesson plans and hope – ready and primed to teach, guide and hug. But I fear there may already be a weariness settling over schools with a backdrop of the Delta variant, a stalled vaccination campaign, partisan brawling and the potential of yet another pandemic-upended school year.

Sitting on the sidelines, people like me feel powerless in our inability to help and support teachers.  

So, I’ve decided to write you all a love letter. Not a mere shout-out nor a simple bravo. Not an objective, measured essay noting all aspects of our current educational system. 

This is an ode, a hymn, an unabashed, audacious full-blown, love letter. 

Teachers and educators – at all grade levels, in public and private schools – you are amazing. I love you for your compassion and tenacity, your heart and soul. You are pandemic heroes, first responders for our children, on the front lines in COVID from the very beginning.

Indeed, the challenges and frustrations of a normal school year are tough enough. But as the world has asked so much of you recently – taking on the ordeal of teaching amidst the bewildering complexities of a global pandemic – you have embraced it. The staff in our schools have risked infection, perhaps more than anyone beyond health care workers, yet soldiered on and taught our kids, counseled our kids, transported our kids, fed our kids, and wrapped your arms around all the things that had to be done. 

Each day you tackled regular teaching duties while also serving as mask monitors, sanitizers of every possible surface, enforcers of social distancing, and teachers of roomies and zoomies at the very same time. Not only did you have to adapt quickly to cutting-edge education, you headed down uncharted paths and navigated new technology, overnight.  You created virtual classrooms out of thin air, moved your lessons to laptops and taught from your own living rooms, often while watching over your own loved ones.

You chuckled (quietly) as young students accidentally brought their Chromebooks into the bathroom, introduced you to family pets and sometimes half-naked family members, occasionally “arrived” at school with pajamas and toothbrushes. And somehow, through it all, you managed to teach.

We honor you. We cherish you. We respect so many school districts like Lincoln Public Schools that courageously bucked politics and consistently chose what was best for kids: keeping them safe, keeping them learning, keeping them surrounded with faith and trust. 

My granddaughter, Everlyn, will have her first day of kindergarten Monday at Beattie Elementary, overjoyed because she has the same wonderful teacher that her big sister had. And big sis Scout will be thrilled to start second grade as a girl who has probably clocked more classroom hours with masks than without – all three of her academic years disrupted by the coronavirus.  Meanwhile, my son Josh, after a grueling year of planning and prep, will serve as principal of a brand-new high school in Kansas City.  He has always dreamed of opening a high school focused on high-poverty students, but probably never imagined he would do it amidst a pandemic.  It certainly won’t stop him.

On Monday, Josh and his staff will join more than three and a half million of our nation’s teachers heading into the trenches in these upside-down crazy times, serving in one of the most impactful jobs in the world, educating future nurses, scientists, chefs, mechanics and all the workers that make the world go round.

I fear more tough and scary times are ahead with a mean-spirited narrative swallowing up many an educational system right now – with intimidation as well as rampant and harmful misinformation about masks and vaccinations. Yet I know, once again, teachers will rise to the challenge, taking on the responsibility of keeping vulnerable children safe, ensuring classrooms are protected havens with lifelines of normalcy and stability.  And somehow, perhaps even miraculously, you will maintain a calm classroom environment, staying above the politicized, anxiety-provoking clamor.

Teachers, educators, I want you to know that these loud and offensive voices come from a very small faction of our citizens.  I want you to recognize that your community is behind you.  Please hear our voices over the rabble – our voices of love and support.  

* We love you for your daily Herculean effort, working long hours well past 9-to-5, often skipping breakfast and scarfing down lunch in record time.

* We love you for giving your own winter boots to the young girl who arrived in sandals in the middle of a winter storm.  We love you for always making sure each child has lunch and books.

* We love you for the way you reach out to every student, extending a hand far beyond the required curriculum.

On Monday, once again, teachers, school administrators, staff, lunchroom ladies, bus drivers, custodians, computer geeks, social workers and every other person who keeps our schools going – will tackle something no generation of educators before them has been called upon to do.  In the middle of a global pandemic, you will teach and students will learn, conquering their first words and their first math equations – getting acquainted with new philosophies and new galaxies – painting and singing and dribbling basketballs.

Teachers, I know you might already feel emotionally fatigued, worried to death about your students, perhaps a bit battered from the wear-and-tear of political vitriol.

But by god the first day of school is Monday and you will rise to the occasion.  

You will persevere.

Our community wishes you all the joy and wonder that a first day of school should bring.  We wish you well.  We send you, our love.

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