An open letter of thanks to sainted elementary school teachers
by Tara Shafer posted in Parenting
I recently attended a concert performed by rising-to-middle-school fifth grade students who sang This is Me from The Greatest Showman, the kid anthem of the year.
The confidence of their voices made me cry.
"I am marching out to the beat I drum/I am brave/I am free/I am who I?m meant to be/this is me."
So it?s almost the end of the school year and I am once again flat out humbled by elementary school teachers. I cannot imagine sustaining the level of active engagement that pulses from these classrooms. I'm in there for five minutes, and I am immediately just unsustainably overstimulated. All. That. Activity.
The messy glitter-based crafts long ago banned from my house are hung along the walls. Second grade projects about mapmaking, weather systems, and kinds of clouds are on display. Inside a classroom, teachers are lovingly (and successfully) getting the attention of a couple of dozen second graders simultaneously. Elementary school. Where tests may be a thing, but where teaching a culture of kindness still reigns supreme. This intent has not yet been sidelined.
In these halls I have seen discouraged children being consoled by teachers. So too have I seen kids skipping on the playground during recess.
For parents of children who struggle in any way -- all parents -- a really good elementary school teacher sets a tone of acceptance, in the classroom, but out of it too. It spills over. A really good elementary school teacher ...
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