Dear Educators,

Being an educator is a heavy responsibility. Everything is your fault if it goes wrong, the entire world is on your shoulders, and everyone is expecting you to have all of the answers. Unfortunately, this pandemic has placed you in a very unusual position. For the past few months, you’ve had to utter three words that you barely use, “I don’t know.”

Not knowing, places an educator in a very uncomfortable position. However, in the midst of not knowing, you discovered you knew exactly what to do, and that was to stay focused on the child. When schools shut down in March, Immediately, there were discussions on ” how will students eat, how will student’s social-emotional needs be met, and how will we continue learning and recover lost learning? Did you notice the order of the questions you asked yourself? Look at what was last. It was the curriculum and content.

Therefore, even when you were beating yourself up, for not knowing, you knew exactly what to do, and that was to focus on the people as opposed to pedagogy, points, and percentages. Think of the greatness that emerged during the pandemic: 1) increased parental engagement; 2) digital divide exposed; 3) teachers and students knowledge of e-learning improved immensely; 4) innovation is at the forefront of every decision; and 5) everybody is talking about education. Even though “we don’t know” how school will look in the fall, we do know that we as educators will rise to the occasion and do what’s best for our students. That’s what we do! I’m excited about what’s next!

For the kids,

Marcus Jackson, Ed.D.