Brave teachers take a leap of faith

I used to call my students sponges. Not because they were cold, limp and soggy or became icky when they sat for a while. Definitely not. I called them sponges because the sponge at my kitchen sink seemed a proper symbol to represent their eagerness to learn. Like a sponge, an eager student soaks up whatever is around them. Hopefully in my classroom, what they were soaking up was quality stuff, but I liked it when they were eagerly receptive. I especially enjoyed when not only they soaked up knowledge, but when they also squished it back out. I would explain to them in the analogy that it’s one thing to soak up the good stuff, but quite another to squeeze it back out — to actually use and apply the knowledge. “So, be sponges!” I would encourage. “Soak it up and squish it back out!”

I was delighted to meet a great bunch of sponges last week. They are about 26 adults who have bravely accepted the challenge and will be fulfilling the desperate need to fill our classrooms with quality teachers. Over two dozen professionals showed up to a series of teacher-training crash courses in “how to do this teaching thing.” They are willing to leave the corporate, working world to stand before a group of students and offer experiences, knowledge and eagerness in order to make a difference in their lives.

No time for a four-year degree in education, the need is now, immediate and desperate, so this group courageously signed the bottom line to fill the gaps of missing teachers in our city’s classrooms. Because, according to the eager faces I met last week, they believe like a lot of us – that our kids deserve great teachers. So, when I met them in the midst of crash courses in lesson planning and classroom management, I saw a bunch of sponges, soaking up the good stuff with the clear intentions of drenching their future students.

Can you imagine? Most of us would never consider doing what they are doing. Leaving 401(k)s and six-figure salaries to join the adventure of the public education classroom. Starting a career without years of training and preparation. I mean, my momma taught me to be a giver, to live sacrificially, to love my neighbor, but to do what these individuals are doing is beyond even my momma’s notion of being noble. Some may call them insane. I call them amazing. And in the midst of their amazingness, I watched one of their training sessions, and I saw 26 sponges in action – soaking and learning and being inspirational.

Our education system is fighting an intense war with constant causalities. Over and over again, schools across the nation open their doors on the first day of school with widespread vacancies. It’s not a Muscogee County issue. It’s a nationwide one. And the casualties are our kids’ education. But what many other districts don’t have that we have are people like the sponges I met last week. People who are willing to sacrificially fight to save a profession as old as time and as necessary as the very air we breathe. I am relieved to know that 26 more classrooms will have capable, courageous teachers standing at the door to greet our most prized treasures.

So, if you visit a school the first of August, may I suggest you wear your rain boots because I reckon there will be a lot of squishing going on. Best of luck, new teachers. Thanks for your willingness to stand in the gap for our kids.

This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 5:55 PM.