A Former Educator’s Reflection on Learning, Growth, and Legacy
By Chad Townley, Regional Vice President of Customer Experience, McGraw Hill
At McGraw Hill, our work is informed by the experiences of the many former educators on our staff. This series highlights their perspectives.
Reflection is a powerful thing, a river that runs both ways — carving into the past while shaping the path ahead. It is the kind of mirror that does not merely show a face but reveals the shifting landscape of who we have been, who we are, and who we hope to become. As a former educator (though I would argue that once one has taken up the call of teaching, it never truly lets go), I find myself wading through the currents of memory, gathering the lessons that still ripple outward into my work at McGraw Hill.
Lately, I have been drawn to a particular question: What does it mean to be an educator? The answers are many, but two truths stand out to me, shining like stones polished smooth by time and experience.
First, teaching is an art.
It is a canvas stretched wide with possibility, waiting for the brushstrokes of passion, knowledge, and skill.
The tools of the trade — textbooks and tablets, pencils and paper, the endless tide of digital supplements — become pigments in a palette of learning. But the real artistry is not in the tools themselves.
It is in the way a teacher wields them, coaxing a masterpiece from the raw, unformed colors of curiosity.
Each student arrives with puzzle pieces of different shapes and sizes, scattered and uncertain, and the teacher’s hands must find a way to fit them together, not into a single rigid image but into something uniquely theirs. Some students bring the edges of understanding, neatly defined, while others come with pieces that do not yet seem to belong anywhere at all. The art of teaching is in making sense of the mosaic, assembling something whole from what was once fractured, guiding hands until they can do the assembling themselves.
And then, there is the other truth: Teaching is learning.
When I was a student, writing came easily to me, like a song I had always known the words to.
It wasn’t until I stood at the front of a classroom, asking my own students to write, that I realized knowing how to do something and knowing how to teach it are as different as rain and the river it feeds.
I thought my own proficiency would be enough to bestow skill upon my students, as if writing were a language they could absorb through proximity alone. But they did not all come with the same foundation. Some had never been read to as children, their world unshaped by the rhythm of words spoken aloud. Some had never been given the space to see language as something they could own.
Teaching them to write meant unraveling my own understanding, learning to see the invisible steps I had taken so long ago, so I could make them visible for others.
I was fortunate to work in a district that believed in the growth of its teachers, and that understood teaching as an evolving craft, not a fixed skill. And so, I learned. I learned that humility is as vital to teaching as knowledge, that mastery is not a static achievement but a horizon that shifts as you move toward it.
I learned that the best educators are the ones who never stop being students themselves.
So here is my hope, my wish pressed between these words like a leaf kept safe in the pages of a book: that every teacher, every learner, every hand that shapes the minds of tomorrow, will embrace the dual call of this work. Be an artist. Be a learner. Our future depends on those who will create, who will question, who will dare to reach beyond what they know.
The next generation waits for us, holding out their puzzle pieces, their blank canvases, their unwritten stories.
May we be worthy of them.
With a deep-rooted passion for education and leadership, Chad Townley serves as the Regional Vice President of Customer Experience at McGraw Hill, where he drives impactful strategies to enhance customer engagement and success. His career began in the classroom, where he spent seven years teaching Middle and High School English Language Arts and Reading while also coaching cross-country, basketball, football, baseball, and track. Transitioning into school leadership, he dedicated the next seven years as a middle school Assistant Principal, shaping academic and operational excellence.
Chad holds a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology and English from Angelo State University and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Texas at San Antonio. His expertise in education, leadership, and customer success continues to influence his work in the industry today. Outside of his professional endeavors, he is an avid competition BBQ enthusiast and enjoys catering for events. He has been happily married to his wife, Katy, for over 23 years, and they share two children — William, a high school senior, and Alexandra, a high school sophomore.
