By Marian Wright Edelman
“Teaching children may be the highest way to seek God. It is, however, also the most daunting way, in the sense of the greatest responsibility.”
–Gabriela Mistral, Chilean Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature, school leader, and teacher
Every year, the first full week of May is a chance to show special gratitude and thanks to America’s teachers. This year Teacher Appreciation Week comes at a moment when the nation’s Department of Education itself is under attack. Children’s Defense Fund recently noted that if the Department of Education were to close:
“Students attending roughly 98,000 public schools and 32,000 private schools in 18,200 school districts would face unnecessary negative consequences.
“More than 12 million post-secondary students who depend on its grants, loans, and work-study assistance would be negatively impacted.
“Title I funds for schools serving children experiencing poverty by supporting 180,300 teaching positions for more than 2.8 million students would be threatened.
“Historically marginalized students, including those who are Black and Brown, living with disabilities, transgender, nonbinary, and immigrant students will lack necessary civil rights protections.”
Now more than ever is a time to thank the teachers who are supporting children and young people every day despite all headwinds and who are making a difference.
Being the kind of educator who consistently nurtures, respects, and inspires the students in their care remains a special calling, and we all owe an immense debt of gratitude to every professional who answers this call. We know teachers are not sufficiently valued in our society if we measure their worth by money—yet after parents, teachers are probably the greatest influencers and molders of children’s and young people’s futures. I have written before about my own teachers who joined parents and other community members in weaving a seamless safety net of caring for children, and provided buffers of love and encouragement that helped combat the negative influences of segregated small-town southern life. They were role models who didn’t equate book smarts with common sense or goodness, but always stressed the importance of education as a means to help improve the lives of others and leave your community and world better than you found it. They were also dedicated to working with children and young adults to set high standards and made clear their own belief that every student could achieve at high levels. All young people need adults who believe in them and expect them to achieve, who love them, and whom they love so much that they live up to their expectations of success.
The Children’s Defense Fund Freedom Schoolsâ program is especially proud that so many of the college-aged Servant Leader Interns (SLIs) who are trained to teach at CDF Freedom Schools sites every summer go on to pursue careers in education and become these teachers and mentors for the next generation. Thirty years ago the indomitable Dr. Maya Angelou spoke at the graduation of our first small class of CDF Freedom Schools servant leaders. She engulfed us with her passion and confidence in them: “Let me tell you who you are. You are the rainbow in the clouds for people whose faces you have not seen yet, whose names you don’t know yet, whose histories you haven’t been told yet. And you are, each one of you, individually, privately, each one of you is a rainbow chosen to be in the clouds for somebody.”
Every teacher has the unique opportunity to be that rainbow of hope for their students. Children and young people need adults who never give up on them, are constantly searching for their special gifts, and who refuse to let them fail. The best teachers do this every day. Teacher Appreciation Week is once again a special opportunity to thank all who are already doing their part to transform young people’s chances and our nation’s future by mentoring, challenging, nurturing, and inspiring the students in their care right now.