I appreciate teachers, especially public school teachers, who are generally underappreciated and, yes, underpaid. Dealing with so many prying eyes of “anti this” and “anti that” activists doesn’t help their long arduous days.
Their unbelievable dedication struck me one day recently and I had to share it.
It was early Friday morning of last week and my wife and I were giving my son and daughter-in-law a vacation. While my wife kept the 7-month-old granddaughter, I ferried our 5-year-old granddaughter to school (not in Louisiana). Just 45 minutes earlier, she was in the grip of deep sleep.
Once dressed and ready, she was excited to be on her way to school.
However, something was not quite right in the truck. “Pop, do you have an app that can play Young Dylan Theme Song?” My son had advised me that it is her fav hype music on the morning drive. That said, I guess I’m old, because I was stunned that a 5-year-old was asking me about an app.
I was able to make her wish come true by telling my phone to play it. I could see the wide smile on her face in the back seat.
We arrived at 7:15 a.m., and there were teachers and others outside greeting the students as the cars pulled up in a steady moving line. I chatted for about 15 seconds with a teacher who ushered my granddaughter into the school building.
When I returned to pick her up around 3:30 p.m., the same teacher was among the greeters standing outside. She smiled and waved at my granddaughter as she jumped back into the truck. My granddaughter waved back.
About four hours later, that same teacher and several other teachers and staff were in one of the school’s parking lots. They were there to manage an outdoor movie night starring superhero Sonic the Hedgehog. There were refreshments, food and everything for more than 100 K-third grade students and parents.
It was a great event, lasting until a little after 10 p.m. That teacher, a couple of others and staff thanked the audience after the movie ended.
I wanted to say to her and the others: “You are amazing.” I wanted to show them the respect due to them. I waved and got her attention. I felt great.
How tough is it to be an educator? Well, I had just witnessed some of it. Untold minutes, hours and stress that don’t show up on the paycheck or just a kind “Thank you.”
I see so many times that these giving souls now have to fight lawmakers, parents and others who want them to be perfect and who believe they know their profession better than they do.
Add to that, public school teachers are now hounded by the anti-everything groups who want to restrict books. They threaten the teachers and librarians with penalties if they refuse to remove a book called into question by just one person. The teachers in public schools have double and triple doses of horror to deal with.
It’s like Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, wrote recently: “Attacks on public education in America by extremists and culture-war peddling politicians have reached new heights (lows may be more apt), but they are not new. The difference today is that the attacks are intended not just to undermine public education, but to destroy it.”
The hard-working public school teachers are being squeezed by a privatization movement that is grabbing funds away. As Weingarten said, the privatization movement will “starve public schools of the funds they need to succeed and then criticize them for their shortcomings.”
There are proposals to raise teacher pay in Louisiana. But this is not a missive asking to support any of that.
This is just a feeling that I want to convey what happened on one day in a 180-day school year, that a few public school teachers and others did out of the sight of everyone.
They asked for nothing, but they got my respect and love. They need more people to show them some love. They have earned it.
Email Edward Pratt, a former newspaperman, at epratt1972@yahoo.com.