Teachers Need a Hug Sometimes
Not long after starting my job as a custodian I learned a very simple, yet powerful, truth...teachers need hugs too. I am married to a teacher of 30 years and my daughter is a teacher as well. So, I knew the hardships and trials that teachers go through each and every day. But, being surrounded by teachers in a school setting for eight hours a day gave me a whole new perspective on not only the profession of teaching but the person as well. As most school custodians will tell you we have a unique perspective as it relates to the school setting. We see moments in time play out in classrooms, hallways, art rooms, gyms, and cafeterias as we perform the myriad of tasks a custodian is required to perform in any given day. We see more of the school each day than probably any one staff member. We see the good and the bad in everyone.
Most people tend to have a very narrow view of teachers. Their scope is usually limited to the act of teaching, what they do in the classroom with their students. Very rarely, I believe, do those who don't work in a school setting take a moment to think of the teacher as a person. That person who has a life outside of the school. The teacher who fills the role as mom or dad, husband or wife, son or daughter. That teacher who, because they are human, experiences the every day stressors we all face. We sometimes fool ourselves in to thinking that teachers can, magically, discard the burdens of life once they walk through those school doors. That they somehow have this innate ability to block out the worry they are carrying because their child is sick or the grief they are experiencing because of a tragedy that is now visiting itself upon their family. I think people want to think that teachers are bulletproof and able to set aside those thoughts and feelings so that they can devote their entire selves toward the art of teaching. I know we want to think that is true...but it isn't.
As I peeked out of the janitor's closet each day I saw teacher's who were hurting, teachers who were tired, and teachers who would have, at that very moment in time, given anything to be somewhere other than where they were. Yet, there they were, setting aside there struggles so they could ensure the learning environment they provided for their students was safe, exciting, and life changing. They could of stayed home with their sick child, but they came to teach someone else's child instead. They could have devoted their attention to their own problems but they didn't. Instead, they did the one thing we tell everyone not to do, they pushed their grief, their anxiety, their worry, and their struggles deep down inside and somehow found the strength to give their students everything they needed to succeed.
Don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that teachers are superheroes, although they are. And, I am not saying that teachers somehow experience more challenges than the general population, although they do. What I am saying is that it might be best for all of us to be reminded what teachers are first and foremost...people. People who struggle, people who hurt, people who cry, and people who have needs.
I've seen a lot of things from my view from the Janitor's closet but no matter the lens in which I chose to view those things through, no matter what perspective or angle, predetermined bias or perceived understanding I thought I had about teachers, that view changed as a result of that job I had for two and a half years. I learned a lot and I hope to share some of those things with you in posts to come. But for now, remember this, teachers are just people...and people need hugs.
Derek