Teachers, I'm calling you out. Ask yourself Why?

Teachers, I’m calling you out. I’m throwing down the gauntlet. I’m stomping my feet, raising my hands in the air and shouting with all of my soul, just one question. Why do you do what you do? Why do you get up too early, spend too much time with other people’s kids and spend your meager check to buy supplies for your room and all the while ask friends to save toilet paper tubes, aggressively recycle all sturdy plastic containers and glue yourself to Pinterest to complete that theme/project/activity for your classroom? Why are you spending summers in training that rarely increases your pay and why do you show up at school days or weeks before the mere two days you get to “set up?” WHY?

You say it’s for the kids. Let me enlighten you. If you teach them to be mini versions of you, expect them to learn your way, to match your teaching style and fit into your grooves, then it’s all about you, not them. What is a teacher if not a mentor, guide, source of inspiration and visionary? It is your job to reach each kid where they are and help them become a better student, and more importantly, a better person. Kids should walk away from your class inspired and tired, as should you. The word teacher needs to be synonymous with flexibility, creativity and mastermind.

So, if your desks are set up in perfect rows, bulletin boards pristine, labels on anything and everything, and you have lesson plans that could be bound into a textbook, good for you. But, if you don’t look deeply into the spirit of each little soul entrusted to you and ask yourself what you can do to ensure they are successful and filled with a love of learning when they leave you, you have failed. No matter the test scores, no matter the check marks on your checklist, no matter how quiet they are when in your room, be sure not to mistake compliance for success.

So, as you walk into the new school year, ask yourself WHY you do what you do. Did you put that kid first? The one with the squirly behavior or the one struggling who hides it with defiance. So yeah, I called you out. I was that kid who could have slipped compliantly through the cracks. But, I had teachers who wouldn’t let me settle for being anything less than my fabulous best and I challenge myself to be that teacher everyday. Are you with me? If not, get out of my way. Let’s...do...this!