SUBJ: Be grateful
SUBtitle: Live a long, healthful life
The good news this week is there’s no news. So here’s a reminder to be thankful, and get exercise. I just spent 2 hours helping landscape the most seen veteran’s memorial in Illinois, a traffic circle a few blocks from my house. And I recently wrote and had accepted for publication in the Rockford Register Star, an article reminding people to give thanks to elementary school teachers:
MY TURN: To unsung heroes, our elementary school teachers! During the pandemic, much recognition has been given to medical caregivers, police and military personnel. For my turn, I want to draw attention to another profession where people have been serving on the front lines to preserve our nation. During the past year, I have been working as a literacy tutor at a public elementary school in Rockford, Illinois. The real unsung heroes in the United States, I now realize, are the elementary school teachers in the public schools.
Having taught neuroscience, I learned that the most important years for brain development is during childhood. Children’s brains are wired primarily during their elementary school years. More than half of all neural connections in the brain are established then, creating the mind that lasts until college age, when this process happens a second and final time. Elementary school teachers are responsible for our nation’s children during this vital development. So whether children grow to love learning and behave responsibly falls substantially on elementary school teachers.
How can the successful teacher, year after year, mold these young minds so that the kids can grow up to become productive citizens and leaders for the world of the future? In the challenging environment of the classroom, elementary school teachers have to be loving, patient, encouraging, entertaining role models for a room full of children. In addition, with the special challenge of COVID, teachers have had to adapt to new Zooming technology and to find new ways to keep students engaged, all while working with quarantined families and classes. Each kid has a unique learning situation at home and brings their own levels of preparation, learning speed, and motivation. Every day the teacher comes into school with joy and kindness on their faces, radiating happiness to all the children parading into their class. I have marvelled at these mostly young men and women who day after day, whatever the weather, their personal situations, the national news, every day they come in glowing with hope and joy and enthusiasm.
Finland has one of the most successful school systems in the world. Teachers are highly paid and well respected by everyone there. Unfortunately, school teachers in the United States do not currently enjoy the same adulation. As a professor who has traveled the world, I was flattered when people met me and said, with deep respect, “Oh wow, you are a professor!” When I look at my colleagues at Spring Creek Elementary School, I think, but do not say often enough, “Oh wow, you are an elementary school teacher. Thank you so much for your service!” Whenever I remark that I am a veteran, people thank me for my service. It would be wonderful if everyone could provide the same gratitude to our teachers.
