A mere five months ago, I abruptly ended my teaching career, not of my own doing, but due to a pandemic nobody saw coming.  At least I didn’t.  Anyway, the result was that parents, with the help of teachers, assisted in the teaching of their own children.  The result of THAT, was I kept hearing things like, “teachers have the hardest job in the world!”, “teachers should make a million dollars a year!”, I’ll give teachers all the supplies they need when we go back”, and “teachers are heroes”.  I remember thinking, maybe this is the turning point for teachers.  Maybe now our society will appreciate the importance of educating children and those who do the educating. My how things have changed.

Before I begin, let me state that I’m not siding with any particular political party nor claiming any knowledge in the field of medicine.  Neither are an area of expertise and it’s not where I want to focus my words. In the last few weeks, educators have been vilified from all directions.  If we want to get back to school to help kids, we obviously don’t care about their health and safety and if  we don’t want to go to school because we care about their health and safety, we obviously don’t care about kids and their education.  It’s a lose lose situation.  And just as it has always been,  teachers are getting judged and blamed for decisions made by others.  We have no say.  We’ve never had a say.  But as long as we were able to spend our days educating and loving kids, most of us were ok with it.

Forgive me if I sound a bit cynical and more than a bit disappointed. I and so many of my colleagues have spent decades of our lives loving and educating other people’s children.  Sometimes at the expense of our own families.  Despite the fact that we are experts in our field, educated, experienced and passionate about what we do, we are not treated like any other professional.  Nobody presumes to walk into another professionals work space and tell them how things should be done.  But we’ve talked about this before and honestly, despite the frustration, I could deal with that.  But not the political blame game that’s going on now.  Teachers have become pawns in political warfare, fueled by a pandemic that nobody has control over, ridiculed by people on both sides of the aisle with no consideration as to what teachers think or how they feel.  I believe it’s that very lack of control people feel about everything right now fuels this.  It’s like someone who has been abused now abusing someone weaker than themselves so that they feel they have some power.

What some fail to remember is that teachers are people.  They have families with children.  They have feelings.  They have health issues.  They’re human – just like you.  The problem was that five months ago, we weren’t heroes.  We were just people with a chosen profession, who got up every morning to do what we love and are trained to do.  That also means, that just because this country needs a scapegoat, we’re not zeros.  We’re the same people we were before, being asked to do a sometimes impossible job, teaching in class and remotely with several devices at the same time, sometimes provided for us, sometimes not, sometimes dragging our teaching supplies on a cart, wearing masks, tying shoes, putting on bandaids, and attempting to enunciate carefully enough so that children can understand what we’re trying to teach.  Those who have the energy to do this (or who have no other choice) are working to smile underneath the mask because teachers understand that children are feeling unsure and afraid and it’s their job as the adult in the room to make them feel safe and cared for AND provide them with the best education possible.  Maybe that’s what makes them heroes.

Most real heroes I know are humble.  They would never consider themselves to be heroes.  They’re just doing their job to the best of their ability.  They’re not looking for accolades, but as human beings they might be looking for a little support, a pat on the back.  A quiet thank you.

Thank you teachers.