Celebrating National Teacher Appreciation Day

To the Editor;
    I have been in public education for 18 years. Throughout all those years and all those varied experiences, I maintain my faith in the unsung heroes of our communities — our teachers!
    A day in the life of a school teacher can be nuts! As parents, we know how chaotic a day can become with one or two children, so most of us should be able to imagine how crazy a day can get with 20-plus children in one space for 6-plus hours per day, 175 days per year!

    At one point I read that teachers make 1,000 decisions per day in their jobs. Those decisions range from thought out lesson plans to on the fly responses to the child that comes into school crying after a family tragedy and everything in-between! There are 175 days in most school years, which means our teachers make over 175,000 decisions in any given year. Even more impressive is that those decisions are made with the wellbeing of each individual student in their classroom at the core! I, for one, would count that as a “heroic” effort indeed!
    Teachers today are also often left to deal with many things that teachers of the past have not had to deal with. For example, today teachers have seen and understand the very real threat of school violence, yet they come to work every day without bullet-proof vests. No, our heroes instead come to school and they practice lock-out drills and they practice how to provide first aid, and they practice how to be vigilant to the various and complex issues that are so often the root cause of school violence so that our children are safe.
    Today, our teachers are asked to do things that range from helping students learn how to potty train to helping students learn how to solve complex chemical equations and most things in-between. Our teachers teach students the importance of reading, writing, and arithmetic as well as the importance of living healthy lifestyles, how to become effective problem-solvers, and how to treat others with respect. Our teachers teach students how to deal with and harness their emotions, how to organize their thoughts coherently, and how to persevere when things don’t go exactly as planned.
    As superintendent of Belfast-area schools, I have seen teachers who have literally given the shirts off their backs to their students. I see teachers who stay late after school and who come in early. I see teachers sit with our children at lunch time, who hang out in the hallways to catch that one student and ask them about their day just to see their faces light up when they do. I see teachers who slip that high school student an extra twenty dollars so they can buy something on the field trip they otherwise couldn’t have. I see teachers who care more for their students than they do for themselves, and who give freely of their time and energies for the children under their educational care.
    Teachers put every ounce of their heart and soul into what they do, and often don’t hear any “thank-you’s” or “good jobs” until years after a student has left their classroom, if at all.
    Teachers don’t get many awards or grand celebrations. There’s not often a line of local, state, or national celebrities waiting to give these educators a pat on the back and public recognition, nor is any expected. Teachers do what they do because they love children, children of all ages, shapes, colors, sizes, and experiences. Although I am still very involved in public education, I no longer deal with children every day, and to be honest, I miss that.
    However, I am daily amazed at the work that our teachers do for our children and for that, I just want to say ‘thank you” and I would encourage you to do the same for your teachers. In my mind at least, there is no question, they deserve it.
Heather Perry
Shirley