Several weeks after Hurricane Michael devastated Panama City, Bay County and the eastern Panhandle, I told my friend and collaborator, then-Bay County School Board member Ginger Littleton, that I was frustrated because there seemed to be nothing I could do to help the teachers and others I had spent time with during my outreach work there. Ginger gave me very simple instructions that I’m thinking about a lot these days: “Encourage the teachers.”
I am trying to take advantage of the (unfortunately few) opportunities I have to encourage teachers. I talk regularly via phone or text with a few teachers. I tweet or email regularly with a few more.
But I feel unequal to task of helping teachers deal with the apprehension I hear in their voices and read in their emails and tweets. The teachers I know have good reason to be apprehensive. The science about how effectively students can pass COVID to teachers is, let’s say, quite unsettled. But certainly a school staff member who is unknowingly infected can pass the virus to other staff members.
It’s too soon to know how many teachers decided at the last minute not to return to the classroom and leave the teaching corps because they are concerned about their own health or the health of a loved one with whom they live. Florida’s students will miss them desperately when we return to some semblance of normal – probably in fall 2021.
If you are a teacher and you think there is something I can do to help you out from my home office (sorry, no trips right now), do not hesitate to ask. If I can find a way to do it, I will.
If I send you a bit of encouragement via twitter or email, you can be sure I wish I could do more.
If you are reading this and you are not a teacher, then you should join me in looking for ways to encourage the teachers who are in the middle of the most frightening situation they’ve ever seen in a professional setting.
Perhaps if enough of us do the little things we can do to encourage teachers, whether it’s an action of substance or just a word of support, it will help a bit. And perhaps if we manage to help the teachers a little bit, they will be able to do a little bit more for their students, some of whom are feeling desperate themselves.
We need to get as many teachers and students as we can through this pandemic emotionally intact. All of us who are not K-12 teachers should be looking for ways to help, even if the things we can do seem small. The only way we can really fail at this is to give up and do nothing at all.
Bridge to Tomorrow 