This week President Obama signed a proclamation decaling the
week of May 4-8 as National Teacher Appreciation Week. Now you are going to
tell me that teacher should be appreciated every week and just like every day should
be Mothers Day, it is true. So aside from the appreciate breakfast or flowers
what can parents, students and the community do so demonstrate their
appreciation?
Teachers need to know that they are relevant, that what they
accomplish every day in the classroom matters. In a 1985 personal letter to my
wife, who was a social studies teacher for 35 years, former President Richard
Nixon remarked that he still remembered his history from 50 years before and he
hoped that my wife’s students would remember her. It’s funny, my wife always enjoyed
seeing former students or getting letters and Christmas cards ten or twenty years
after they had been in her class. It was a validation that she mattered to
them.
Teachers want respect. They are not the blame for all of America’s
ills nor can teachers alone solve all of this country’s problems, but teachers
here seems to have a much lower standing than their peers in other nations.
Teachers want support. Parents and community leaders need to
know that they can could on them for encouraging students to do their housework
and establish fair and credible curricula and provide technological
opportunities for students to keep pace with their peers.
So if you want to taker a teacher to lunch, don’t let me
stop you. But if you really want help make a difference, show them that you
support their work.
C.2015 J. Margolis
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