Knowing yet another community has been decimated… Or that we as a nation have failed, once again, to make our country a safe land of opportunity. As an educator, I am not sure which is worse…
I know that I am not alone in asking, what can we DO? I had just posted about how the actions of citizens in Buffalo, NY had gotten Tops and Wegmans to remove all the guns and ammunition magazines off their racks… We were feeling the ‘satisfaction’ of this small victory when the news flashed across the screen…
Donations, prayer vigils, posts, outreach in the neighborhoods, calling politicians… nothing seems to be enough anymore. I know in my heart that this does not mean we stop… But the magnitude of devastation has reared its ugly head and it is hard to carry on…
Yes, we need more mental health services… Yes, we need to reinstate safe and realistic gun laws… Yes, we need to fight for justice and equity…
Perhaps the most important lesson I learned in my thirty-five years in an elementary classroom… we need to not give up.
For me, it is an easy “yes,” to send a donation, make a phone call, or attend a rally… Thousands of us do these things… But these are not cutting it.
I find myself needing to go back to the drawing board…
When there was a roadblock in my classroom… what did I do? Like dozens of my colleagues, we kept on keeping on…
SEE the faces of the disenfranchised. Make another phone call home.
Don’t stop because someone might disagree with your approach… If it helps a child belong to their community… DO IT.
Take the Michaels and DeJays, the Simons, Siyus, and Miguels… please don’t give up on them. While we as teachers may not FIX their worlds, we can invite them into our fold so that they don’t feel the need to destroy it…
Those in education have a greater mission now than we ever imagined. We may have gone into teaching because we wanted to make a difference. I hear it from every teacher candidate in their Philosophy of Education papers. NOW is the time to invest that passion and energy for the marathon ahead. It is a race we cannot ignore; it is a call we feel not only in our hearts but literally in our aching bones.
The warm fuzzy teacher notes, the victory lesson, the special class meeting – all important. But if I have ever felt the need to stay the course for the child who gets under our skin… who no one likes, who seems to purposely make people dislike them… it is now.
Let those who can fight legislation …FIGHT LEGISLATION.
And let those who are in these wonderful, horrible. devastatingly real trenches… take a deep breath and STAY THE COURSE for all our children. Our future depends on it.
