Why Do We Hire Professional Educators?

 

Why Do We Hire Professional Educators?

 

 

I often ask myself this question, "Why does the town of Brunswick hire any professional to work in our schools?"  My personal view is that it takes skillful, dedicated professionals who persevere in their jobs, under often difficult situations. Gone are the days when we can say people who work in education do so because they can have summers off. Today those who work in education put in long hours throughout the year. School calendars may have markers that say school ends sometime in June, but effective educators work throughout the entire year. Collaborating with their colleagues on curriculum development, lesson planning, school initiatives, analyzing the never-ending data collected on student achievement, communicating with parents and other community members (it does take a village to raise a child), creating schedules that eke out every possible learning moment for students, financial planning/budgeting, and more. Please notice that most of these activities do not include any direct contact time with students. When you consider that educators spend most of their day in a classroom with students, you might curiously ask when they do all the things I just listed in the previous sentence. The answer: before and after school, the weekends, and during the summer months. So, yes, here are some adjectives that describe educators: professional, persevering, dedicated, motivated to make a difference in a child's life. Multiple children's lives. Education matters in people's lives. It opens doors to a lifetime of opportunities.

 

So why would Brunswick want to hire professional educators? Answer: to use their skills and passion to create stimulating learning opportunities for both kids and themselves; to be creative thinkers and make learning meaningful and interesting; to be critical thinkers to solve problems and issues that arise in our schools.

These are highly professional, dedicated, skillful resourceful people working in the Brunswick School Department - teachers, administrators, and a wide array of support personnel (from classroom assistants to nutrition staff to bus drivers to secretaries to nurses to mechanics to....on and on). Every one of them are teachers in their own way. They all contribute to the development of students who become skillful, creative, critical thinkers.

 

There is one more task that all these professional school employees do that can take even more perseverance. That is to deal with the political bodies and individual activists who use political organizing to influence the operations of our schools. I am not talking about shaping the vision for our community schools. I am not talking about the individual parent-teacher relationships that are formed in order to better serve individual children's learning and social needs. I am not talking about legitimate volunteers who selflessly give their time and/or resources to the schools and seek NOTHING in return. No fame. No recognition. No 'resume building' accolades. No social ladder climbing. No political points.

 

Every day school staff enter their schools trying to keep the 'political buzz' at bay in order to bring the day's learning opportunities alive.  They must reduce the clamoring noise of those who believe the school budget is excessive. They must soften the sounds of the citizen voices at the public podium who have a specific disagreement about something happening at one of the schools. They must cushion the many 'I have an idea that would be good for our schools' and artfully integrate it.

 

Every day school staff open the doors of our schools and classrooms ready to spend the day with children smiling, laughing, talking, singing, dancing, moving.....And then do the same the next day and the day after. Year after year.

 

Let's not let the political buzz get too loud.  Let's let the professional educators we hire do what they do best and celebrate with them all the good things happening in our schools.