The Heart of A Teacher

You know, when I first started teaching almost 20 years ago, I would never have defined myself, or members of my profession as courageous.  When you think about all the jobs that require courage…be honest…teaching is NOT the first one that comes to mind. Although I believe that there are other jobs that would fit the idea of courage more handily, I submit that there are lots of every day moments that teachers engage in that require them to be courageous.  I would not define myself as a shy person.  I love to be around people, experience new things, share my life with others.  Coming from a large Latin family has prepared me for lots of loud, loving experiences with others.  Crowds don’t really phase me.  So, when I came home from a recent teacher’s convention and read many follow up posts on #findingyourtribe, I started to think about how I could help others to #findtheirtribe.  The thing I think that KEEPS teachers from finding where they belong is a lack of courage.  I humbly submit that for those of you who feel like you are ‘shy’…you ARE courageous!  You just don’t really embrace it!  Let me explain.  There are so many day to day ways that we embrace the idea of courage and we just don’t see it in that light.  You know what we do?  We MINIMIZE it.  We TOSS IT ASIDE.  We act like it’s JUST WHAT WE DO.  Guess what.  If everyone could do it easily…everyone would…and we do what we do…every single day! 

 

I don’t know when we stopped believing the fundamental truth that we are pretty AWESOME, but…as a community of teachers, we have.  There’s lots of situations, people, issues we could point to as the cause, but I want to be about a SOLUTION.  It’s high time that we stand in our truth and remember that we are doing this job for a purpose that is beyond a paycheck.  What we do is NOT easy, ordinary or duplicatable.  I stopped to think about the ordinary to extraordinary moments throughout my career…or even through the stories of other teachers I know where teachers displayed courage.

I don’t know about you…but it takes courage to sit with a parent and talk about their child’s retention.  It takes courage to tell them that their fighting at home is impacting the child at school.  I know I’ve had to do it.  I didn’t WANT to…but I did.  I know some of you have to. We embrace all kinds of at-work challenges…changes in curriculum, administration, class size.  When children don’t come one size fits all, we’re mandated to make square pegs fit in round holes…and you know what…we rise to the challenge every year…because we have COURAGE!

I have run to the nurse with a students bloody nose pinched between my gloveless fingers…sat in an ambulance with an asthmatic child, loved on kids who’d cursed me OUT the day before…and prayed with kids in my classroom over lunch…right in my public school classroom.  I KNOW you guys do this stuff too.  It’s courage!  We were all inspired by the story of Victoria Soto, the Connecticut teacher who threw her body in front of her students at Sandy Hook.  The media quickly called her a hero.  They were amazed at her bravery and that of the other teachers who were killed defending their students.  As a teacher, I wasn’t surprised at that. That is WHO WE ARE.  So, when you are presented with challenges this school year…and you will.  Remember that courage takes all forms.  I pray that my courage would never be tested like that of Miss Soto, but…I pray that in the little things that might be required of me…I step up to the challenge…no matter what and continue to inspire my students and parents to be their best self no matter what.

Make this school year be defined by your ability to step out and be the shining star we all know you can be! 🙂

Happy back to school!