So This Time, Teacher Appreciation Hits Home

Another Teacher Appreciation Week has come and gone. Mother’s Day comes with the dawn. For so many parents trying to ‘home educate’ their children, it’s been a time of hair-pulling angst as their new ‘students’ are kicking and screaming against social distancing. These two months have given families an epiphany: patience is really a virtue have teachers have coursing through their veins.

As summer approaches, I have bad news for these parents. It doesn’t end. There may not be camps to send the kiddos off to. There is no after-school-is-out-classroom programs (called Extra School Service). Nope. Instead, there is just more. More of their kids clamoring for their friends. And who can blame the kids? They are as tired of their parents just as much as the reverse is true.

Oh, how we long for the days when the PUBLIC school teacher stepped up and taught, not just the basics of reading and writing and arithmetic, but those hearty, brave teachers (and shall I add under paid) also taught something far more important: character. (And trust me –it counts.)

There have been drive-by parades with balloons and there are clever Facebook and Twitter ‘posters’ that praise the teachers for all they do. And that is great. But I know that it is not nearly enough. Sorry. Real teacher appreciation doesn’t call for balloons or cool GIFS. I…