“The Farmer in the Dell” is a favorite song this week for the delightful and determined Elizabeth Holiday. If I think too deeply about its words, my feminist leanings wince at the farmer “taking” a wife, rather than marriage being a mutual decision between two consenting adults, but sometimes, I just think too deeply. After all, it is only a children’s rhyme (food for thought for another day).
I am grateful for the mutual choosing that gave us two beloved daughters-in-law. Lauren, wife of Greg, officially entered our family circle almost ten years ago, and, much like Kate Middleton has done so beautifully, solidified her position of honor by producing heirs, the lovely Madelyn Simone and the aforementioned Elizabeth. Becky, wife of Dan, is newer to the Shade clan, and is currently utilizing her nurturing abilities as a teacher at Southgate School in Canton. We were delighted that her school district, the Stark Board of Developmental Disabilities, selected her as Rookie Teacher of the Year. Woohoo!
Each year, the Stark County Education Service Center invites hundreds of family members, friends, and colleagues to its Education Celebration, where its many districts honor their best rookie prospects, and select a more experienced classroom veteran as teacher of the year. Given the many challenges faced by teachers in today’s culture, the excitement of the newbies and the commitment to their profession as expressed by veteran teachers was especially encouraging.
As long-time educator Mike Gallina spoke that night, he described the role of teachers as being brokers of hope. That phrase caught my attention. How is it possible to arrange a deal for hope? After all, hope isn’t a commodity to be traded or sold. Yet a broker is also an intermediary, one who links one person to another, or, in this case, one who links a child to hope.
In Gallina’s eyes, hope-brokering requires a commitment to excellence: setting expectations, dreaming, risking, and caring. The expectations come early. In Mrs. Frank’s kindergarten class, we were expected to raise our hands and to wait our turn at the drinking fountain. In Mrs. Ditmer’s first grade classroom, we were expected to trace our letters in a consistent manner so that others could read our writing (an early struggle for me). The expectations of Mrs. Rowe’s AP English class set the bar higher: this is how you write to succeed in college, in life.
Dreams? Miss Creighton took the French Club to Montreal and Quebec City. Mrs. Taylor invited select students to join the local semi-professional orchestra. Mrs. Lucsok challenged her students to reach the nearly unattainable goal of a perfect Regent’s exam score in geometry. These dream-giving teachers personified John Lennon’s words, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”
And what of risk in the classroom? The duck and cover drills of my childhood (useless in the event of a nuclear attack) pale in comparison to today’s active shooter drills. Today’s classrooms may bring an increased physical risk to teacher, that’s only a small part of what Gallina was suggesting. Committed educators expose themselves to danger, harm, or loss every day, as they face the fallout from poverty, broken families, and the opioid epidemic, the demands of standardized testing, the unrelenting influence of media and technology, and the threat of compassion fatigue.
I suppose I had a few teachers along the way who were in the profession for the money (?), job security, or even summers off. But they’re not the ones I remember. Instead, I remember Miss Kramer, whose tearful yet calming presence on the day JFK was assassinated colors that moment in time with care. I remember Mr. Hurley, the elementary school principal who came to my rescue after a massive wipeout on my bicycle outside his office window on a hot summer day. That kind of caring isn’t written into any job description, yet it’s on display every day in classrooms across our country.
Malala Yousafzai says it best: “One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.” I’m glad the newest Mrs. Shade has joined that revolution, brokering hope one day, one child at a time.
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