Don’t we all appreciate our teachers more? Thanks to Covid-19, parents around the world better understand the challenges that come with teaching children day in and day out. It took ten weeks of disrupted routines and social isolation to open our eyes to what a gift a teacher can be in a child’s life.
But will we send our children back to school in the fall expecting teachers to teach once again with the same energy and enthusiasm they once had? Hardly. We must consider the new challenges teachers now have, in addition to everything we were praising them for just yesterday.
I have taught and worked in education for over two decades. As I read the headlines and watch the continued health warnings and civil unrest, I empathize with teachers looking at the task ahead. What teachers are expected to do seems impossible.
We expect teachers to be an expert in the content they teach, to grade fairly, to be knowledgeable in child development, to provide health and safety in the classroom, to close learning gaps due to Covid-19 and to care for students’ emotional health, now weighted down by continuous national and global events.
Teachers will become rule enforcers for social distancing in classrooms and on playgrounds. They must remind students of sanitizing rituals and to wear masks properly if necessary. Teachers are now vetting appropriate curriculum on the theme of social justice. And let’s not forget we expect teachers to provide high quality curriculum and teaching online should shelter-in-place orders be issued again.
What we ask has never been done before. We need Super Teachers. Who’s first in line?