Friday, December 21, 2012

Teachers

There have been so many stories in the media about teachers lately. I think I have read each and every one of them. As a teacher in the same community for the past 19 years, the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting has me rattled. I cannot wrap my mind about a man with so much range shooting a school full of first graders. Babies. My heart is broken.

I came across this post on a CNN blog. The author called herself 'Mrs.B".

I have taught preschool for 10 years. As some teachers have stated, I also found myself wide awake in bed this past weekend pondering what I would do if faced with a similar situation. Not for myself, but for them. Where would I take them? Where would I hide them? How would I keep them calm and quiet? I always call them "my kids" and although I don't have any biological children I doubt that the way I feel about my students would change based on that. I feel like some jobs/careers should be accepted with different expectations than others. This would include teachers, pilots, captains, etc. I don't think ship captains should be "falling" into rescue boats. Just as I don't think teachers should use children as shields. Whether these expectations are written in black and white or unspoken, we accept these responsibilities wholeheartedly. We are not in it for the money and as long as our bills get paid and we have spouses who accept that our weekends are not our own and the we don't stop working because we have clocked out or left campus we rarely complain. We constantly spend our own money on our class, spend our time researching the latest teaching tactics, prep and plan for upcoming days, and take home work to grade, progress reports/assessments to complete and the like. We understand that in the event of a real emergency such as earthquake or fire we would be required to stay with our class before going home and tending to our own families. So many of us feel called or destined to teach and it's an honor that we don't take for granted. My prayers and thoughts go out to each person who was affected by this recent tragedy and I pray that only people who belong in the classroom are granted the privilege to do so.


I couldn't have said it any better. The world is fortunate to have someone like you in the teaching profession. God Bless you Mrs. B.

Sincerely,
Monica

2 comments:

  1. Very nice post.

    I have a slew of teachers in my family. Men and women that I have the utmost respect for. Being a teacher isn't exactly easy. A good one would have to be far more patient than I am and a good deal more understanding.

    I work as a supervisor in a sales organization. I don't have a lot of patience with my direct reports, but I try to have a relationship with them based on mutual respect.

    While my people drive me crazy at times, if a crazed person burst in on us and tried to kill them, I would do whatever I could to protect them. So I can only imagine how a teacher would feel about their young charges.

    Teachers are taken for granted when they provide an invaluable service to their communities. The only time we seem to think about them is when something like this happens or when one is screwing one of their students.

    As a society we need to do better.

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  2. Thank you.

    We do need to do better as a society. We need more people with empathy. People that have self control. I'm not sure this generation has many. The future is bleak.

    I've been reading stats about school shootings. 40 of the last 62 mass shooters have been white males under 35 years old. What in the world is going on?

    I love my students. I don't teach for the $. I teach because I care about children. It's a tough job and I'm blessed to have it.

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