American Education Week

Last week, November 16-22, was American Education Week and it serves as a time for all of us to stop and ponder the meaning of education in all of our lives. This month also included National Parental Involvement Day (Nov. 20th) and of course National Family Week, which involves the Thanksgiving Holidays. Family tends to be first on many people’s minds around this time of year; I think that any conversation about education has to include family.

If you take a close look at education, and what has to take place for real learning to occur, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate family from learning. In the 21st century, the big change is that these “families” take on many shapes: a mother, father, grandfather, neighbor, pastor, friend, peer, or coach can all be part of the family unit and play a role in education of the individual child. In an ideal world, parents wouldn’t have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet—but the reality is parents can’t always spend as much time with their children as they would like, so that is when the larger “educational family” steps in—those adults that actively help that individual child succeed in and out of school.
What continues to amaze me is the very positive influence our teachers, administrators and support staff have on our children daily. The psychologist Abraham Maslow argued that until a child felt safe and accepted, learning could not take place. Everyday, our teachers have students that walk into their rooms with needs that need to be meet before learning can occur, and I am constantly awe-struck with the dedication and concern that our teachers do this—from the Kindergarten teacher dealing with a scraped knee to the high school teacher dealing with the broken heart. We can’t ignore that these children’s feeling exist, but rather we must help the student deal with them so that life, and learning can happen. This type of concern happens on the football field, and in the tutoring room, and in the congregation hall, and in the employment office and many other places both in and outside of school. This care is what educators, and families do. I am so very thankful for the teachers that we have, but I am also thankful for the close-knit communities that help make up the families and educational support systems that our students so desperately need. Without this family of caring, concerned individuals, many, many of our students would fall through the cracks.

This American Education Week, I’d like to take time to thank those that make a difference not just by working with our students in school, but to those that help make up our larger educational family in all walks of life.