On World Teachers’ Day, Thank You Ventura ( and All) Teachers.

 
Today is World Teachers’ Day. You know this because simply put, a teacher taught you to read.
Because you know how to read, and think for yourself, and, no doubt, a host of other things teachers gave to you in ways often so subtle you never realized they were being bestowed, you also know these are times like no other.
Distance learning. Covid-19 safety guidelines. Terms we never heard of. Terms we never dreamed of. Things we never dealt with.
Teachers have always worked hard for the right reasons. It’s been estimated that almost one-third of new teachers have to take second jobs to make ends meet. Research says the average teacher spends more than $450 of their own money on classroom supplies each year. If you know a teacher, you know that research is only a ballpark estimate. But the point isn’t in the numbers. Long before Covid-19, teaching was a synonym for doing more with less.
This attracts a certain kind of person.
Take a deep breath. As you (yes) read this, teachers are spending countless hours creating new lessons from scratch, redesigning assignments so they work online, helping kids with tech issues or just getting them internet access, answering questions they could never have dreamed of, lying awake late at night worrying about children who are falling through the cracks, lying awake worrying that children aren’t getting the social interactions they need. Lying awake because there are pieces missing.
And there are always pieces missing — because that’s how teachers feel.

A teacher’s credo is different.
What is best for someone else?
In that alone, they set the finest example.
Teachers, they teach by example. And so, when we are thigh high, we learn how to be kind, how to work hard, how to push on when things seem impossible.
These times, they butt up against impossible — for the teachers, for the students, for the parents — but there are lessons in this too.
“Teaching,” an educator once said, “is the greatest act of optimism.”
Never have we needed optimism more.
And happily we have just cause for optimism, for education has built us the foundation for success. The scientists, the doctors and nurses, the kaleidoscope of heroes who will bring us out of this, they sat where today’s students sit now.

In these close-to-impossible times, do not lose sight of that.
Education is the most powerful tool in mankind’s grasp. It cured small pox. It sent us into space. It created leaders and innovators who changed the world.
Education, it touches every cranny of existence.
So on World Teachers’ Day — and every day — thank you. Thank you to all the teachers in Ventura. Thank you to all the teachers everywhere, working beyond hard to see that education thrives in this new world.
It is hard.
But there is no obstacle education cannot overcome.
No situation it cannot create.
Or defeat.