Whatever the pandemic decisions, educators deserve our praise and thanks
This has been the hardest year educators have seen in their entire careers and they are not getting the appreciation they deserve.
They have had to pivot in response to evolving recommendations from the CDC, Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois State Board of Education, which had them creating and recreating complex logistics to maintain safe physical distancing.
Some families have had parents out of work, others are working from home, stressfully trying to keep their kids on track. The schools have had to figure out how to administer Illinois Assessment of Readiness testing for both hybrid and remote students. Many districts have ongoing budget limitations and there is an ongoing teacher shortage, all in the midst of a pandemic, in which each of us is trying to keep ourselves and our families healthy.
In the midst of this ridiculously stressful and complex situation, a few loud, but isolated voices have become inexcusably aggressive, threatening school board members and even some of our hardworking teachers, rather than recognize the reality of the situation we're in. They're holding protests, rather than rallying support for our educators in their most difficult hour. I fear this embarrassing lack of empathy will scare good teachers into early retirement and have a chilling effect on new teachers going into the profession.
Educators, please know, I see the incredible efforts you've put in, trying for all you're worth to keep going in the midst of this storm. I see the teachers relearning how to teach, taking things they've known how to do for years and reconfiguring them for Zoom. I see you trying desperately to keep the attention of our younger kids, who have so many interesting things distracting them.
I see the art and music teachers creating something out of nothing, learning new software, spending hours of their personal time, in order to help our kids learn ways to express beauty. I see the P.E. teachers trying to keep kids' bodies active. I see principals, secretaries, special ed teachers and specialists who had to come into work in person, even when they had their own health risks.
Decades from now, no one is going to ask our kids what their test scores were, or whether they fell behind in science or social studies. People will be interested in what it was like to live through a pandemic. And our kids are going to remember the new puppies or kittens their parents finally let them get. They're going to be grateful for the times they got some fresh air going for walks or bike rides outside with their families or for some alone time away from their siblings.
They're going to remember counting to 20 when washing their hands and how we all had to learn how to communicate with our eyes while our mouths and (hopefully) noses were covered by a mask. They're going to remember having pajama bottoms on, saying, "you're on mute!," and how their teachers wanted to see their faces on Zoom. They're going to remember who was there for them in addition to their teachers - their families, faith communities and neighbors - who cared about them and demonstrated how communities do hard things.
I have not always agreed with the decisions and plans that have come down. I have wished for more outside-the-box thinking about how we can be more creative with this time. But these differences of opinion will always be there.
More importantly, we as a community owe our educators, school board members, principals and staffs a tremendous amount of gratitude. They deserve a stadium of people, stomping their feet and cheering at the top of their lungs, like they just won the World Series. We can't do that with physical distancing guidelines, but they deserve that level of gratitude, that level of praise, for getting our kids through this year.
Please know that I speak for many, when I say, from the bottom of my heart, "Thank you."
• The Rev. Mark Winters, of Naperville, is pastor for the First Congregational United Church of Christ of Naperville.