Imagine a World Where Teachers are Richly Rewarded
May is Teacher Appreciation Month and it is easy to find reasons to appreciate teachers. In fact, when we start looking for ways that teachers impact our lives, it feels like there are not enough ways or days to appreciate them. I recently had the opportunity to visit Lu Sutton Elementary, a public school in Novato, CA, to witness to energy and inspiration teachers there have brought to their students. Wanting to integrate the natural world with reading and art, teachers initiated a Reading Garden and Mural project. The result is magnificent…a peaceful garden with benches and a brilliant mural, full of characters from favorite children’s books, painted by the students themselves.
Across the country in Kentucky, a high school science teachers inspires his physics students with wild experiments and an orientation toward love. Look at the faces of students in this video tribute to “Mr. Wright.”
Each day this man lets the kids know that they matter, that their love matters, that our life on earth matters…and that it is all exciting and interesting, full of possibility. What could be more important than inspiring happiness and curiosity in young people?
Most teachers are underpaid in this country. Many struggle to pay rent, or support their own families. Teaching is arguably the most important job in the world, and it is also, arguably, the least appreciated. For many, teaching is a sacrifice…something people do because they feel a calling, not because they will find wealth or even security . Imagine a world where the best and brightest young people people flock to teaching positions because they will be richly rewarded. Imagine a world where teachers are paid tantamount to the number of young people whose lives they touch, to the number of young people they send out into the world inspired.
