No matter how many years ago since you were no longer attending public school, the start of the new school year still hangs in the air throughout the community as a hope of a better tomorrow and the dreams of personal accomplishment. Parents embrace the hectic change of pace brought on by the preparations for the school day while the students talk about seeing their friends, meeting their teacher, and greeting the new year with anticipation. The yellow school busses begin to make their rounds and the children stand waiting as a symbol for everyone in the community signifying that the future is still bright and life’s rewards are just around the corner.
Teachers begin each new school year as trained professionals who assume the temporary ownership of hundreds of children with a view toward helping every child to reach his or her full potential. They embrace their responsibilities as the facilitators of learning and understand how they must model learning, risk taking, growing, and behavior. Teachers have been diligently preparing for the arrival of inquisitive minds, ready to accept the responsibilities of our world and become the next generation to help make America great.
Public education can be complicated based on the ever-changing criteria of state and federal regulations. Yet, when our children return for the school year those complications fade into the background as the urgency to guide each child takes precedence over the pundits who believe they know so much about education, but have never assumed the responsibilities that come daily within the classroom.
The art of teaching is a calling as well as a profession. It is demanding with a myriad of challenges that are rewarded through the joy of the recognition when a child has those moments of understanding and enlightenment. It is an art as well as a science as our teachers use a variety of collected and ever-evolving skills to alter instructional practices in order to ensure each new generations growth will meet the needs of the time.
Since the early days of our nation, public education has played a vital role in preparing our children to be productive and participate in the promotion of the public good. This includes hard work, meeting challenges, and accepting responsibility. Our need for public education has never been greater for in a world without public schools, responsibility for our children’s education would be dispersed across a perplexing array of providers with no-coordination for accountability. Our communities would then lack the clear channels of communication and access to our most important framework for the future, our public schools.
We are accountable for each other. We have responsibilities as the citizens of our community. We love our kids and it is essential that we work together to help each child by modeling our core values and being an educated citizenry. Its time for school to start - for all of us. We are all learners. This is an exciting time of the year for our entire community. See you at school.