Harold Hogue, Author
In 23 years, my mother raised 2,300 students plus my sisters and me. For more than two decades, she has woken up at 4:45 am to make sure breakfast was cooked, clothes were ironed, and our homework was ready to turn in before she drove off to one of the most underserved areas in my hometown, Indianapolis, to teach her English class. She still thrives off the phone calls that come years later that say, "Thank You, Ms. Hogue" and the social media posts that say, "Without you, I couldn't have done it." She has lived a life empowering others, but as a former educator, I've always asked myself, "Whose job is it to empower the teacher?"
"Whose job is it to empower the teacher?"
There's no questioning the work that teachers do day in and day out takes an incredible amount of skill and surgical precision. In my experience, most people that encounter a teacher ask something of them. The babies need their love, attention, and knowledge; the administration needs them always to be improving; the parents want to know how their child is doing, and the list continues. When I was teaching, I felt months go by before anyone outside of my family would ask, "What can I do for you?"
"TEC exists to uplift, connect, and empower our world’s most valuable servant leaders."
The Educator Collective is a group that asks that question. TEC exists to uplift, connect, and empower our world’s most valuable servant leaders. It is a community built around the notion that teachers deserve a space and a network that allows them to grow and plug into areas outside of the school building. Every conversation at TEC centers around one key question - "what do teachers need to grow personally and professionally, and how can we give it to them?” To help answer that question, TEC's board of directors is made up of teachers and school leaders that lend a voice to guide the organization in defining how they should approach supporting a diverse cohort of educators.
True innovation is rare. The Educator Collective is indeed starting something special by choosing to focus on empowering teachers like my mom who give so much of themselves to this work and to their students.
Harold Hogue
Regional Manager, Enriched Schools
Former DISD Science Teacher