Teacher Appreciation Day

You have to love children.

That’s what my mother-in-law, who spent her entire career as a teacher and school administrator, tells me about the profession.  

I love children. Or my own, at least. But I question whether I have the aptitude to teach — and by aptitude, I mean the self-control necessary not to be mean to other people’s kids.

As another academic year comes to a close, it is once again time for me to marvel at the extraordinary people teachers are.

The good news is my mother-in-law also tells me that more and more in recent years, teachers’ salaries and benefits are catching up with the rest of the working world. Throw in the lavender bath salts, ugly coffee mugs and little plaques with funny sayings and they’re practically rich.

Consider every kid who has ever thrown up in their classrooms and we’re back to break-even.

To be a teacher is to know, more intimately than any parent wants to begin to imagine, what is going on in your house on any given day.

To be a teacher is to go through that first year on the job when every kid sent to school sick passes their ungodly germs onto them. “No immunity yet,” my mother-in-law sniffs.

To be a teacher in today’s world is to know which kid has peanut allergies and how to work the EpiPen.  

And to be a teacher is to know how it feels to be told by the parents of the most obnoxious kid in your class just how special their little darling is, and how inadequate you are in not appreciating it.

In a teacher’s favor, kids are usually a little better behaved in school than they are, say, at your house for a birthday party. They seem to just know, from the first day of kindergarten, that throwing themselves on the floor until they turn blue will not have a positive result.

At school, kids believe all that stuff about their permanent records.   

But not always.

Sometimes, teachers get kids who can’t concentrate in class because their parents are doing drugs at home. And sometimes, teachers get kids whose parents appear fine but who they suspect are the source of the strange bruises they see.

Years ago, my mother-in-law taught at a school where they had to herd the children away from the windows when the gunfire from nearby rooftops broke out.

She bought school supplies and lunches and extra clothes in case of accidents. She worked to get the really gifted kids scholarships to lab schools.

But ask what she remembers most and it was the kid who innocently played with the one little toe that stuck out of her sandal during circle time.

And being called “Mommy” by too many blushing children to count.  

It was recognizing that funny gagging sound just before running for the sawdust.

You have to love children.

One Response to “Teacher Appreciation Day”

  1. Kevin

    Not bragging, but our three kids have had successful academic careers so far (two in college, one a junior in HS) and are particularly bright. That’s the raw ability though; without dedicated, interested teachers, they would never have achieved what they have in any of their schools. Our two girls are inspired enough to want to pursue educational careers. If they have the patience to deal with someone else’s kids, then they will be successful in those career tracks.

    As a dad to these two, about all I worry about regarding their choice of career is the sorry state of educational funding. Our oldest girl, just going into college, wants to go into music education. Unfortunately, we have had to point out to her not only the poor job Illinois (and really the entire US) does getting money to the schools, but when the money goes away, it’s the arts that get cut first.

    If they are lucky enough to get employment at a school that has successful athletics, they have a better chance of their music programs being funded. How sorry is that?

    Oh, and interested parents help too!

    Reply

Leave a Reply

  • (will not be published)