Thomas Rhett wrote the lyrics. The song is “Be A Light,” with Keith Urban, Chris Tomlin, Hillary Scott & Reba McEntire. I’ll pick a few favorite lines:
“In a world full of hate, be a light
In a time full of doubt, just believe
In a place that needs change, make a difference.”
Hi teacher reader, and anyone else reading this today! Teaching is all about being the light and the change in kids’ lives. Even when we are sending a student to the Dean’s office with a referral form in hand, those referrals tend to be attempts to help a kid back on track while offering others the uninterrupted instruction they deserve.
Are you hurting today, reader? Did you give virtual teaching your absolute all, only to end the year on a down note? Maybe you were riffed or even nonrenewed. Maybe you were forced to pass a passel of kids who did nothing for months. Many schools did not let anyone fail. Maybe you gave a “C” to one of those kids who did no work only to have angry parents attack you for their child’s non-effort. How dare you lower his or her GPA!? If you had been a better teacher, maybe you would have received some work!!
I remain mystified by those administrators who made no allowances for the challenges of teachers trying to manage the remote learning needs of their own families while also helping all those middle or high school students who may or may not have entered their Google classrooms. For many teachers, the last few months have been crazy busy and an abysmal downer. Whether by Zoom, Facebook or Google, so many teachers tried to make virtual learning work, with varying degrees of success.
If you are hurting, maybe it will help to understand the whole game was loaded. For people in some places, no win was possible. I won’t dwell right now on the many reasons why that’s true. I’d like to provide support instead. Thomas Rhett wrote this song and made me think of my fellow educators: “Be a Light” – because that’s what teachers are. Teachers are lights in the darkness. In some times or neighborhoods, they may only be faint candles in fierce winds, trying their hardest to get that angry child to eat a little breakfast and calm down before the start of the day. But day after day, they walk back in to help the adolescent girl who still cannot read, the frightened child who hopes dad will NOT be paroled, the lost boy who is hiding his confusion by cursing to get thrown out of class, and so many, many other children… all with their own stories and hopes, all carrying their own invisible baggage
Eduhonesty: You made it through the year. Be proud of yourself. Focus on what you accomplished and if you did not get the support you deserved, remember the faces that matter, the faces of the kids in your classroom. Despite all those mugs with apples on them, teachers remain one of the most underappreciated resources of our time.
In a time full of war, teachers fight for peace.
In a time full of doubt, teachers believe in students — and not just the advantaged ones. We believe in that girl who arrived at the age of fourteen with about twenty words of English. We believe in the boy with ADHD, as we try to teach him coping strategies to help stay focused. We believe in the girl who is juggling high school and a full time job at the supermarket, helping her at odd moments and during lunch with her homework. We believe in the OCD girl who is sometimes paralyzed because her rainbow has become too uneven, or the blue came out too dark, and we help guide her to a gentler place where a rainbow does not have to be abandoned because of one flaw. We quietly buy supplies for the homeless boy, and books for the girl whose single mother just lost her job.
In a world full of hate, teachers try to bring light.
In a time full of noise, sometimes teachers are the only ones listening to children crying out to be heard.
In a place that needs change — as so many do today — teachers provide safe havens for the sad, the struggling, the lonely and the hungry, along with books, Jolly Ranchers, healthier snacks, sparkly bookmarks, learning games and, most importantly, a sense of belonging.
Are you hurting today? “In a race you can’t win, slow it down. Yeah, you only get one go around… In a race you can’t win, just slow it down.” You worked and worked and worked and somehow it didn’t all get done? Forgive yourself. Some of the expectations in April and May were simply nuts. You can create the lesson. You can’t make Johnny log in.
We have been locked in the virtual fight, and I am beyond impressed with how valiantly the teachers I know have fought. But a number of you are feeling hammered in the endgame. Don’t. Just don’t. Take a deep breath, maybe find a guided meditation or bake some gingerbread cookies. Put the pain down. Teachers have been holding torches aloft through the spring of 2020, making a difference in America and all across the world. Many have been marching in streets across the country for weeks now, seeing the faces on their rosters in the face of George Floyd. Others have simply been filling out days and days of “paperwork,” trying to hold on to jobs that help feed their families, while also reading virtual bedtime stories to students scattered by quarantine.
Embrace that effort. Embrace yourself. In a time full of doubt, just believe in yourself.
The last verse of this song resonates with me:
“Yeah, it’s hard to live in color
When you just see black and white
In a world full of hate, be a light.”
And don’t let anybody dim your light because this year went sideways on us all. To all the teachers who tried to slay the dragon, while managing your own families, new technology, new software, children without access to technology or software, children missing their graduations and dances, children who were sad, afraid, or bored, holidays without celebrations, and day after day of new educational experiments, I’d like to say
P.S. And to any administrators or other decision makers who did not say thank-you — or who made it a practice to say some version of “thank-you but why did you do this when you should have done that instead?” — Shame on you!