Tag: #parentsupport

Hug from a Student – The Irony of it All

I sit here with tears in my eyes, barely able to text these words, blurry to me, but clear to you. I want you to think…think of a moment when someone is so happy to see you, so surprised that you appeared in their presence. Got it? What a gift, right? One of the best gifts ever! I was given that gift yesterday.

Let’s go back a few days first…my husband was rewatching his video of this gift during the weekend long surprise celebration of my 50th birthday. My daughter came walking in from around a corner and I was so shocked and delighted that I was overcome with joy, so much so that I couldn’t even speak, as tears happily christened my ruddy cheeks. She flew home to Rhode Island from Key West Community College for the weekend…for me! Neither I nor my beloved will ever forget that moment. It was a gift to us both.

Yesterday, as I walked into the ice skating rink from the back entrance, my eyes were drawn to my left as I saw such an expression of joy on a familiar face. A gasp of surprise leaked from his smile and I mirrored the same feeling as I looked into that delighted grin. As I stepped forward toward him to say hello, he popped up from the bench like a jack-in-the-box, stepped toward me on his skates, looming over me like a friendly giant.

Before I knew it, he embraced me in a bear hug and lifted me off my feet, bending his back to hold the weight of me! As he set me down upon the rubber matting, our smiles had to give way to shouts of hello! Neither of us could wipe the grins off our faces as we chatted while tying up our skates, ready to step out onto the ice for some fun.

A beautiful gift, right? A former student, now at the high school after leaving grade 8 and my classroom doors six months prior, reacting without thinking, just by following his heart.

The irony you might wonder? Just recently my colleagues and I were discussing the fact that we as teachers cannot touch students for fear of any misunderstanding. It is ironic to me that so shortly after this conversation that a student did just that as a show of his happiness to see one of his teachers. It is sad that we are now in a time that human touch is frowned upon in schools, yet teachers have the daily watch over students in their care that lack this very thing. The powers that be also direct us to teach them social-emotional skills because they are so desperately needed and lacking in generations of today. So it all seems to leave us in a state of irony.

Ironic circumstances may surround me, but all I can do and have done for the past 30 years is follow my heart, just as my former student did!

I am inspired by a parent.

I am inspired by a parent. As a teacher of elementary and middle school students for 30 years, I have seen the drastic decline in parent support of teachers. Teachers seem to be under a warped magnifying glass by the general public. What does this magnifying glass see? The truth? Or the distorted sense of the word?

This skewed view is seen on the television news and in newspapers, depicting teachers as lazy, over-paid bon-bon eating babysitters that hang out in the teachers’ lounges with summers off to frolick without a care in the world. Most recently this lens is depicted via a town community page of ‘concerned parents’ which is full of misinformed people shouting out their disgust at the schools and the teachers they entrust their very own children to for seven hours each day – longer than many of them spend with their own children on a daily basis. I’m not interested in defending my profession, nor am I an advocate of watching the “news” chosen to be reported on the popular networks, or reading gossip columns that trash talk under the guise of being concerned, but I am interested in sharing how I am inspired by one parent.

One parent, on this day, this 5352nd school day working with a group of the overall 6000+ students that I’ve worked with over the years, stood out in a way that I haven’t seen in a long time. This parent’s voice would have echoed the voices of hundreds of parents years ago, but not today. Today this parent stood strong, stood behind a teacher, stood up for a teacher, supported that teacher’s work, prior work and faith in her future work. This parent voiced her belief in the dedicated intention of this teacher, of her past work with one of her own children and the confidence that all of the positivity seen over and over again portrayed by this teacher occurs each day and will continue. She stood up, as an advocate for a teacher, at a time when teachers seem to have such small voices in our communities today. 


Those few words held so much power and remind me of how a small effort of one parent can show teachers that they are supported. Although teachers may often feel defeated in this age of testing scores and staff cuts, I smile at the thought that this magnifying glass was polished.  A clear picture of what is truly happening in schools by this teacher and thousands just like her – daily focused time and effort, supporting and teaching each and every student with enthusiasm and dedication. What a gift was given today!  

I am inspired by a parent.