We’re all losing

I recently met a teacher who retired from teaching high school-level English . He also headed up a creative writing program at the school where he guided the kids in writing something personally important to them, then they would read it in front of an audience. I will leave it to you note how many important skills and opportunities that program afforded.

I told him I had a teacher who had been a great influence on me in middle school, and that I ran into him years later after high school. By then, the teacher had become angry and resentful toward the students, and had burned out and retired.

This man said no, he loved the students and would still be there teaching, but that the meetings, grading homework, and other requirements just became a greater and greater burden until it became too much.

Either way, the education system lost, the students lost, we all lost. Now, in this new year when we’re all committing to making positive changes in our lives, can’t we also do a bit better by our teachers?