I didn’t get into this profession for the cutest classroom,
or the cute clothes,
or a Happy Teacher Planner.
I’m not here for accolades, awards, or titles.
I’m here to support kids. Advocate for kids. LOVE my children.
I taught for almost ten years before having my own child. Everyone said being a teacher-mom would change me. I have to say there is only one thing that has changed. I’ll wait until the end to tell you about that change.
When babies are born we all ooh and ahh. We inhale their intoxicating smell (don’t lie, you know you smell babies the second they hit your arms). We envision their future, full of promise and possibilities.
Then we send them off to “facilities”. Places where there are pockets of empowered, passionate, driven educators but where there are also people just doing their “job”.
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Now before you send off that hate letter about how you can educate just fine while treating it as a “job” at least read the rest of the post. Obviously if you are reading an educational blog without being paid to do it then you see what you do as at least a little more than “just a job”.
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These “facilities” are creating places where compliance is king, creativity is squashed and “the whole child” is a catch-phrase that few educators truly understand. Ridiculous clip charts are used to “monitor behavior” when all it does is create negative climates and self-worth. Think back to the last time you inhaled the sweet smell of an infant. You haven’t smelled one? Go to Target. Find a frazzled mom and offer to hold her baby while she pays for her coffee. Just kidding, don’t do that. Its weird and it might get the cops called on you. Just imagine what all your hopes and dreams would smell like if they were doused in baby powder.
As you hold that baby and breathe in the sweet smell of possibilities tell me you want that child to be labeled, to sit in compliant little rows while they complete worksheets created to test the lowest level of learning. Tell me that you want an educator to ignore the emotional needs of that vulnerable being because they don’t get paid to do it. Tell me that it is ok to decide which “track” that child’s life will take when their brain isn’t even done developing. Tell me that you want that beautiful baby to be suspended because they have yet to learn the skills they need to be successful.
You can’t.
No one can.
You want that child to be loved, cared for, supported. You want them to be seen as the perfect individuals they were created to be (not perfect, but perfect INDIVDIUALS).
If what you are doing as an educator, an administrator, a parent, a community member, a HUMAN is not supporting the children of the world you are in the wrong.
Motherhood has changed me as an educator. I’m not “softer” or “more understanding” as many told me I’d become. I’m more impatient, more empowered, more vocal. Our children need adults willing to advocate, no to FIGHT for their best interests. Who knew the smell of a baby could make me ready to battle the complacency and excuses that are all too commonplace.
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Are you ready? If not go find a baby and take a whiff.
