Exhausted Educators

Our educators are exhausted.

Since day one of this two-year pandemic, these essential workers have been pivoting, doing their best to educate and care for OUR children against incredible odds and at risk of their own health. They rarely have planning periods any more due to the need to sub, yet they have more work to do. On any given day, they may have half of their students in-seat, half needing virtual instruction, and a smattering of kids who aren’t theirs but are farmed out to classrooms because their teacher is gone and there are no subs. Yet, they continue to show up and do the best they can to educate children with a wide spectrum of learning styles, educational levels, and mental/emotional/behavioral/social needs – all of which have increased ten-fold due to the pandemic.

The church I serve brings meals and supplies to the school doors, but we can’t get inside to help in classrooms for understandable safety reasons. Maybe more who are fully vaccinated, boosted, not at-risk and with work flexibility could sign up to sub. That is definitely needed. It is more difficult to help in this season, but it doesn’t give us a pass.
Over the years, I’ve kept nearly every note of appreciation and encouragement I have received. Perhaps these are tangible acts of support we could give to our educators and administrators in this season.

If you have a student in school, would you take a moment to write their teacher(s) a note and encourage them, maybe even include a little gift to remind them they are valued and seen?

If you don’t have a student, write a teacher you know. Check out a local school website, look at their staff page, and choose someone.

If you live in Jefferson City, Missouri, and need a name or two, comment or message me. I know a ton of teachers in our city who could use the love right now.

And, if you believe in prayer, pray faithfully for our educators, our healthcare professionals, our service industry folks, the store clerk who gets yelled at because they can’t stock what they don’t have. Let’s all work to be more kind, more compassionate, more understanding, more patient with one another.

We are doing hard things and have been for a long time. People are tired, fragile, feeling alone. This hard season is not over, but we can do hard things if we carry the load together.