As the new school year is under way and parents will be meeting their children’s teacher, I wish to address the teachers.
Dear teacher,
Thank you. Thank you for being concerned for the children in your class; for my child. Thank you for the hours you put trying to break down your lesson plans. Thank you for the creativity you use to attract the students to activities that may scare them.
Thank you for trying to invent another way of explaining what the children simply don’t seem to grasp.
Thank you for taking the time to help the children learn to act appropriately in social settings.
Thank you for being the eyes and ears of the parents in the classroom.
Thank you for giving my child a chance and a place to simply be like everyone else. You see at home, my child is loved to bits but has to be strong because someone’s illness sometimes takes up a lot of everyone’s energy.
Your class is my child’s safe haven. My child does not have to worry about calling an ambulance when in your class. My child does not have to listen to the sounds of a seizure or tickle someone’s toes in hopes that the person will continue to breathe.
My child can be a child, your student. My child’s identity in school does not revolve around illness but learning and friends.
Thank you for letting my child feel like the others. Thank you for taking cues from my child concerning whether to speak or not of the crazy medical emergencies faced at home. Thank you for not bringing it up and asking “How is your dad doing?” .and letting it be about the child
Thank you for letting me know your concerns about what you have observed in my child. Together we could better support my child in dealing with the unusual circumstances in the house while still building a future.
If you had not been thanked before, I hope you know what a safe place you make for not only my child but others who go through difficult and unusual circumstances at home. Let them challenge themselves and grow. You let them discover things they may not see at home which give them opportunities to see who they can become
And you thought teaching was only about lesson plans…
Sincerely,
A mom who knows
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to share this with the families and teachers in your life. In talking and sharing of subjects like how to talk to kids about illness or other difficult subjects, we make the ride a little gentler for those trying to grasp how to deal with bumpy lives.
For those wishing to reading the entry in French it will appear next week. I will be back in 2 weeks with more thoughts.
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