When you imagined your career as an educator, I’m confident you never pictured this school year. You’re now responsible for 30 different roles instead of the usual dozen or so. You feel tremendous pressure. You want to help guide students through a tumultuous time for our country. Many of you likely still have a combination of students in your classroom and on the other side of the computer screen. What you’re doing this year is hard in ways you never would have imagined when you first considering the hard things in your career choice as an educator.
I am not an educator. I am a mama raising three children. But I’d like to take a moment to thank each of you for coming alongside families to raise our children in loving, purposeful, intentional, and meaningful ways. Thank you for carrying this heavy load. Thank you for caring about the work you do and the students with whom you interact. It feels heavy because you believe this work matters. It does matter and your contributions into the next generation are deeply significant. Thank you for not giving up. The number one thing I’ve seen from our school this year is a team of administrators and teachers working their hardest to care for our community. You are pouring both your head and heart into your work. I am so thankful.
You are doing the best you can with an impossible set of circumstances. That’s all I can hope for as a parent. You’ve given up sleep, time with your family and friends, and more of your finances. You’ve spent hours upon hours researching new ways to engage with students and COVID safety procedures. You’ve worried about kids falling behind, kids not receiving school meals, and kids who are spending more time in unstable homes. You’ve risked your own health or that of your family to return to the classroom. You’ve sacrificed seeing your own family members because of your potential exposure to COVID due to your career. These are costly sacrifices. You must feel sad, angry, or scared at times. I’m sure you’re tired. Yet, you’ve shown up to work because you believe in what you’re doing. You care about kids and families and community. You have laid down your preferences, your resources, your time, your talents, your energy, and even possibly your health to invest in others. I cannot thank you enough for your sacrifices.
You haven’t had a say in most of the policies that affect you. You’re probably seeing ways the current situation doesn’t meet the needs of your students and that’s incredibly difficult and frustrating. You are facing a challenging learning environment and performance pressures. This year is different than ones before. I am sorry for the ways we parents have forgotten to give you grace, to acknowledge you as a person, or called into question your heart and work ethic
As a parent, I want teachers for my children who look at them and say in their interactions, “I see you and I care.” Today I want to say the same thing to you. “Teacher, I see you and I care.” I see how hard you’re working. I see how deeply you care. I see how you are sacrificing. I see you as a person who generously gives so much to others. I am so deeply thankful for you. I care about you. I care about how you’re doing. I care about your family. I care about your relationships. I care about you staying in this career for a long time because you are exceptionally talented and passionate. I care about you being healthy as you do it. I care that the burden of your career does not negatively affect every other or any other area of your life.
For all of us, take care of yourself as you pour out so much. Take time to do the things that help you find rest and joy and meaning and purpose. I want you to be able to turn teaching off and to remember who you are as a person. You deserve to be seen for who you are, not just what you can offer. Sometimes the best gift you can give others is to show up well rested instead of well prepared. Please don’t let this be the year you quit. It won’t be like this forever (surely not, right? I for one have not signed up for a 2020 time warp).
In conclusion, here’s what we parents should have been saying all along, but I’m afraid we’ve really missed the mark this year:
We trust you. We give you grace. We believe you are doing the best you can for all kids. We really truly deeply thank you.
Ali Smith is a graduate from The University of Texas. She became particularly passionate about public school while serving on staff with Young Life for eight years. During the second half of that time, she worked with teenage mothers in DISD through their program YoungLives. She is a wife to JR and together they are raising three children. Their oldest started kindergarten this fall and is currently virtually attending their neighborhood Houston ISD school. She loves to cook and began baking Sourdough bread like half the internet during COVID-19. Occasionally she shares some thoughts, primarily centered around faith and service, on the internet at alismithtx.com.