Hug your teachers

 

They arrive at school early, stay late, update lesson plans and grade papers through their weekends. They lead gently, speak softly and usher children toward heights even their own families never imagined they could reach.

Where else but in education can you find such unified, persistent, unflagging dedication?

Teacher Appreciation Day is scheduled this year on Tuesday, May 5 in the US and in Jamaica on May 6. Its U.S. origin in 1953 was quite remarkable––former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt persuaded Congress to set aside a day for recognizing teachers. It was formalized in 1980 by the National Education Association and then spread to other countries as well.

Renowned education writer Jonathan Kozol once said, “I’m always stirred by the tremendous decency of teachers. They are good, solid human beings who do their jobs day after day with love and affection.”

And more than that. As I visit with Mount Waddy’s principal Inez Hawthorne, assistant principal Beverly Carter, teachers Marcene Beckford, Christine Lawrence and Fiona Wallace, they often tell me stories about needing to contribute their own free time and money to help these students to whom they are so devoted.

“No teacher,” they assure me, “can stand back and do nothing when a child is crying from hunger.”

So on TAD when teachers spot hand-lettered posters proclaiming, “We love you!” or small bouquets of spring flowers waiting on their desks, they start to weep. Why? Because they don’t really expect anything in return. Only each child’s individual, unique brand of success and happiness. If they should happen by chance to receive a stroke of gratitude, they feel…flustered. Embarrassed. This isn’t about us, they’ll insist. It’s about the students.

If you want, therefore, to give a teacher something special on this occasion, make it a hand-written note of thanks––or perhaps a gift card. The note will be stored and cherished forever. The card will be spent, of course, for needed classroom supplies.

In the meantime, study these noble souls carefully. Memorize their kind faces. Once your education is completed, and you have left school to enter the much wider, colder, indifferent and often cruel world at large, you may not see their like ever again.

 

 


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