Adding experience to life’s greatest teachers
This column is dedicated to all the wonderful and committed teachers in our communities. Before the pandemic began, they already had my deepest respect. So, a big shout out to each teacher in my life who helped me in some way along life’s journey — I appreciate you all so much.
Teachers have a special gift and calling. Yet, teachers are also grossly overworked and underpaid — and in many cases, overly criticized and underappreciated. All of this has become amplified over the past 19 months as our already stretched education system is caught in the collateral damage of the pandemic and other societal pressure points.
Masks, vaccinations, social distancing, hybrid learning, conflicting curriculums, forced curriculum change mandates, belief systems, gender designations and constrained budgets all coming to a boil of disruption at the same time. My admiration for the teaching community only increases as they continue to pour into their students while giving tirelessly of themselves.
By the way, I am including the entire teaching community. Educators at every level, coaches, mentors, trainers and corporate learning teams — each person who has a platform to develop their students, learners and those they coach must deal with the very same things that someone who is teaching in a classroom, teaching virtually or in some hybrid delivery model…