Moore , Oklahoma Teachers

I have been doing a lot of thinking the last few days.

That sort of pondering that usually involves tears and awe and feelings of humility.


Aside from the fact that I think Texans and Oklahomans must be kin,

I am humbled by what we have seen and heard on the news this past week.


I have been thinking about teachers, specifically the Moore, Oklahoma teachers

whose stories of courage are now known..


Covering someone else’s child’s body with your own

during a deadly tornado,

while praying your own child is safe is nowhere to be found in teacher training.


Trust me-I know- I train teachers, and I was a teacher for 32 years.


It is also rare to find in any beginning teacher manual phrases like ‘shelter in place’,

that dire intercom warning

that can only mean a threat is near

and you the teacher are in charge. 


All of the test scores and benchmarks and lesson plan writing and lunch counts

slip away.


Dear parents – during those shelter in place moments-

it is not about any of that.


Those things are a small measure of the teaching a real teacher can do.

In those shelter in place moments,

it is about who you want in a fight.

***


Bravo Moore, Oklahoma teachers.

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