Educators Need a Break from Being on the Front Lines

So I don't know if it's always helpful for people like me to weigh in at times like this.

Yesterday there was yet another school shooting, this one with just a huge number of victims in Texas, and this kind of thing keeps happening, and I never know whether I'm adding anything by saying anything so often.

I just kind of grieve privately, talk with my friends and family, and don't really say anything publicly.

But in this case, I wanted to just acknowledge what's happening for educators who are on the front lines.

Over the past couple of years, we've seen just so many situations where educators are put on the front lines of a battle that they did not choose, whether that is violence, whether that is, you know, these horrendous acts of violence that keep happening in schools and elsewhere, whether that is, you know, COVID and the restrictions and the dangers and the battles over the tensions between those that schools have really been the battleground for in so many communities over the last couple of years, or whether it's curriculum and some of the culture wars that we're currently fighting on the doorstep of schools.

Educators did not ask to be on the front lines of any of that stuff.

What educators asked to do was to teach kids, to serve kids, to meet their needs.

And the additional burden of all of these battles that are being fought in our society is just too much.

So I guess two things that I wanted to leave you with.

First, if you are on the front lines, please take some time away from the front lines.

When you get your summer break or whatever breaks you have coming up, please take them.

Please do not feel like you have to always be attending professional development or reading professional books or working on your plans for next year.

It is okay and you deserve it and you need it to take some time away from being on the front lines.

And second, for those of us who are not on the front lines, I don't work in a school currently, for those of us who are not on the front lines, we've gotta do our part to deal with these issues, to address these issues as a society, but also to protect educators and students from constantly being on the front lines.

Just the number of educators who've been yelled at by parents, who have been pilloried in the media for just basically being where they are on the front lines, for things that have nothing to do with them.

We've got to do more as a society and we've got to do more as individuals to protect our educators who are on the front lines.

So I guess my final thought is thank you for everything that you have done for our students and for our society by serving our students.

And please take care of yourself and get some rest this summer.

Take the time to grieve over what has happened in the last 24 hours.

and take some time to reconnect with your purpose and to above all get some rest.

So thank you and please take care of yourself.