And most importantly, teach them to succeed in a society that seems to always be tearing itself apart. Ironically, as she begins this first day of class, our nation has placed relatively little emphasis on the importance of this task. She is told simply to teach, but in reality this instructor must do so much more than that. Being a good teacher means so much more than chalkboards, books and lectures. It really means sitting before a class with a myriad of family problems, learning challenges, and of course societal and social stigmatisms.
Every child has a different situation and every child learns in a different way.
Despite these hardships, most teachers have remained dedicated to a central premise. No matter what the situation, no matter what group of students are in the class, no matter what the environment, all good teachers know that no child is hopeless and that every student has the potential to learn. Given all these complexities, it is hard to imagine that our nation continues to place such a low value on an occupation that is clearly so fundamental to our societal health. Our classrooms and our students will only be as good as the people who instruct them. In the next 10 years, we will need to hire 2.2 million teachers.