On Wednesday, the Starkville School District invited a group of community leaders to become “Educators for the Day” on its campuses.
At the end of the day, the group met to share their observations about the experience. The one consistent message: Teachers are the ultimate multi-taskers.
For those who have never stood before a class of young students, the idea of what a typical teacher does each day has an almost Norman Rockwell feel about it.
We imagine the teacher, sitting at her desk, looking out at a group of bright-eyed students, hands folded in their laps or pencils poised to take notes, an eager bunch of young minds hanging on every word.
In this fantasy, the teacher has a singular task: Teach the material to an eager, receptive audience.
Those who served as “Educators for the Day” soon realized that teaching the material is but one of the many demands required of a teacher on a typical work day — although there is no likely to be a “typical” day since new demands, pressures, requirements and challenges emerge, often with little warning, on a daily basis.
We call them teachers, but teaching alone does not begin to cover the roles they play. On any given day, at any given moment, they are counselors, psychologists, surrogate parents, disciplinarians, cheerleaders, negotiators, interpreters and miracle workers.
The word “multi-tasker” was not coined to describe teachers, but there is no group that has raised that idea to an art form better.
They are forever navigating the ever-changing world of education — the rules that govern their world are often made by people who know little of their realities and, therefore, have no understanding of how new policies, rules, requirements made by pompous political pontificators affect education on its most fundamental level.
Teachers spend countless hours planning, developing, training and implementing new programs, only to have them changed with little notice, regard or appreciation for what the added demands will mean.
Theirs are stories seldom heard.
These days, our education news is dominated by political maneuvering in Jackson or the follies, missteps and outrages inflicted by school boards and superintendents.
Bureaucrats and politicians may suffer from the delusion they hold the keys to the success of our educational system, but it is the teacher who looms largest, whose influence is most profound, whose performance in a multitude of tasks is the most critical factor in shaping young minds.
Spend a day in a teacher’s shoes — as those community leaders did Wednesday — and your perspective on education is likely to shift dramatically.
Teachers deserve or respect and appreciation.
But most of all, they deserve our support.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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