Watching the devastation in Oklahoma is heart wrenching. I have spent a lot of time watching interviews and news stories coming from Plaza Towers and Briarwood Elementary School. My mind has been thinking about the families who lost their children in the tornado while in school. My mind has also been on the teachers and school personnel.
Through all of the tears, loss and sadness, this interview stood out to me the most. I couldn't hold back the tears. This teacher's account of the tornado moved me and shook me to my core.
Take some time and watch it. Seriously. Watch it. If I were a parent of a child caught in the devastation, THIS is a shining example of who I would hope would be there to love and comfort my child.
As a teacher, I completely understand her mindset. Our students are other people's babies and is a responsibility most teachers take VERY seriously. Tragedy after tragedy you hear about teachers using whatever means necessary to keep their students safe as their one and only concern. If ever faced with a tragedy as a teacher I have no doubt where my responsibilities and moral obligations are. And I know my co teachers would be right next to me with the kids as our top priority.
As a parent if I could not be there to protect my child, I find great comfort and peace knowing that there is a teacher loving and comforting my child and assuring him/her that everything will be okay.
Missing homework assignments, an angry parent phone call, adequate yearly progress, etc are irrelevant when faced with tragedy. We are dealing with people and families and that should always be the first priority.
This weekend I read a comment about a child's teacher not using an apostrophe correctly. My gut reaction was disdain and knowledge that in the situation referred to, there is more than one grammatical rule that can apply. Yesterday that comment popped into my mind. Actually, many of the negative jabs and comments I have been reading lately came to mind.
Who CARES? Sometimes teachers make mistakes, send emails or correct papers with typos. Sometimes we say the wrong thing and regret it later. We are human and like you at your job, sometimes we make mistakes. On the other hand, some days when we get to see other people's babies smile with inner confidence and joy we know what we do matters.
If your child survived a deadly tornado or school shooting thanks to the help of a teacher, does the teacher's grammatical error really matter? Is the assignment you decided to correct the teacher's corrections and send back to school really that important?