Ms. Peck

Every so often after school — before COVID-19, my son and his buddies would walk from their middle school to his old elementary school to visit their favorite teachers, including his second-grade teacher — notoriously tough, full of facts and a dry humor.

I know my son will remember him forever, just as I remember my second-grade teacher, Ms. Peck. I loved everything about Ms. Peck, and so I loved second grade. She had a big smile and dark brown hair, almost black, in a sculpted bouffant that fell to her shoulders in a perfect outward swirl. I remember being embarrassed about not being able to tell time, and she somehow knew and helped me learn. I remember my classmates had to spell words out loud, and when one made a mistake, and I gave side eye, she offered that smile and led a group homage to the silent “e” rather than an admonishment of the student. I begged my mom to ask her to babysit.

It’s perhaps a sad truth that coming out of the pandemic is a long awaited, much greater appreciation of teachers, being voiced by so many over social media. As families struggle to recreate school at home, the recognition of the magnitude of the work teachers do is being put in stark (and often frustrating and despairing) relief. Intuitively we have always known what research shows: In schools, teachers are the most important factor in student achievement.

Teachers are going to herculean efforts to continue schooling during the pandemic. But now that teachers are distant, piped in by the Internet, I wonder how their influence might be muted and what toll that is taking on our children’s overall learning and greater development. More than their critical roles as sages and coaches, teachers are role models and care takers. They help our children build resilience, be grateful, find their voice and take action.

Giving teachers — or even better working with them to co-create, modern tools that advance their craft is one small way of honoring the profession and supporting the tremendous expectations we put upon them. This is complex, given that the pandemic has laid bare overarching inequities in hardware and connectivity that also are reflected in the resources that teachers in rich and poor communities have at their disposal.

But once the pandemic is over, we simply can’t let any teachers return to the same old. When you think about professions that have access to cutting-edge technology, you might think of doctors, scientists, engineers. Does anyone think of teachers?

Teachers need state-of-the-art distance learning tools and online content that is not reserved for pandemics, but rather integrated seamlessly into schooling. Basic training on how to use these tools is a given, but teachers also need strategies to engage students in online environments, especially those who are not showing up now. In this way, schools will be able to pivot easily during dark times, but also be able to enhance in-classroom learning all the time.

We can’t only think of distance learning. Imagine trying to teach 30 different young brains distributive properties (a math concept I recently had to relearn in real time with just one son). To be sure, teachers have a range of strategies to help all their students — whether struggling, on task, accelerated — grapple with concepts like these, but that often means searching all hours of the night for just the right instructional resources to teach the next day. Imagine how much more empowered teachers would be with AI tools that enable them to quickly identify specific lessons and resources, in real time, tailored to each child’s individual learning strengths and needs.

I work with schools as part of the private sector, and believe that along with government, we have a powerful role to play in supporting schools and teachers with free tools, content and experiences. But we must be mindful. Public-private partnerships are delicate dances, must be designed with students at the center, and with educators taking the lead. To make a positive and measurable impact, the private sector must first listen and ask questions and then complement with our knowledge and expertise. What challenges are teachers experiencing? What do teachers need to be more effective? Questions like these build the foundation for understanding and trust that then allows the private sector to introduce new steps — ideas for distance learning, content that builds skills for 21st century jobs — that can integrate well into classroom instruction and deliver breakthrough solutions. We will all need to work together to help our schools modernize.

My son likes to leaf through old yearbooks with his friends and still laughs when he reads the sign-off from his second-grade teacher: “Have a great summer. Be sure to do lots of stuff, things, this and that and something or other. Erase all of your homework and redo. Good luck in 3rd grade. P.S. Be sure to come back in September.”

I’m not sure where my old yearbook is. But all these years later, I still think about Ms. Peck and wonder what happened to her. I have looked for her online but haven’t been able to find her. She remains frozen in time, as does my naïve wish that only happy things came her way. I picture her having helped generations of children learn to tell time and master the silent “e.” I imagine her hairstyle changing with the times….and maybe her instructional tools did too.