Today was National Teacher Appreciation Day.

I imagine you can think of at least one teacher who has had an enduring impact on you through the years, can’t you? Many of us, myself included, can think of several.

Elka Amorim, my current host, who teaches at the high school level, told me stories last night of the impoverished schools where she’s taught, in the Bronx, elsewhere in NYC, and currently in Richmond. She tells me of many exhausting 12-hour days at the school. She tells me of what it’s like trying to succeed with students whose parents have absolutely no involvement in promoting their kids’ education, and of loose-cannon teenagers who are anything but easy to teach. Over the miles, speaking to many schools, I myself have come to learn how challenging it can be to keep kids focused– and I don’t even have to deal with test-related stress.

From the many teachers I’ve met across the miles, I hear of how so many states and school districts have resigned education to a “teach-to-the-test” model, which sadly sweeps away opportunities of learning how to actually thrive in the world, instead emphasizing the filling in the correct box on some standardized test.
Overworked and underpaid teachers really dislike being demonized when students don’t always fill in the proper box on the test sheet– especially when many students come to class unprepared, unsupported, malnourished, abused, and more…

To every teacher who works hard to create a better, brighter today & tomorrow for America’s youth: YOU ARE MY HEROES. I give you far more credit than a ballplayer who makes a hundred times more than you. I give you far more credit than dirty politicians who pay themselves far more than you. I give you far more credit than those who enrich themselves by walking over others.

THANK YOU Rocío Sotomayor, Brooke Drury Shamhart, Travis Burnham, Kelly Alvis Bisogno, Jennifer Richard Blackwelder, Amanda Major, Julie Richard, Krista Schroth, Jenny O’Meara, Leigh Humphries, Ann Crawford, Rachel Parker, Jen Lucas, Winslow Carter, Coach Cheek and so many more for all of your wonderful efforts to create a better, brighter world for our children ~

Hard working Ms. O’Meara, who teaches in Warren County– poorest of all of North Carolina’s 100 counties– thinks day & night of real-world math problems to apply to her classes. She’s working tirelessly to effectively guide, assist and inspire her scores of students.