A teacher is someone who can hug the hurt away

One of the neatest things about teaching is the daily adventure. Never does a teacher enter the classroom expecting the exact same thing because every day is totally different from all the days before. For an entire career, expecting the unexpected is a teacher’s reality, and that is what makes the education profession so exciting.

However, sometimes, every once in a while, a teacher can become a little bogged down. Grading papers, planning lessons, doing paperwork and attending meetings may begin to take their toll on a teacher’s spirit. Add a dose of difficult student behaviors, children performing below grade level, demanding parents or state and local mandates, and a teacher sure could slide down the slippery slope towards complacency.

Then, right when a teacher seems to need it most, a nugget of affirmation comes around. For Jennifer Richardson, a fourth-grade math and science teacher at Hannan Magnet Academy, her nugget was a diamond in the ruff.

Let’s call her Monica, a rough-around-the-edges little girl with a tortured soul teachers may see only once in a career. With a reputation that proceeded her, Monica was known in the building as a difficult child who never formed connections with her teachers. To add to the young girl’s troubled soul, the year before she entered Mrs. Richardson’s, her mother had been murdered, forcing the little girl to move in with her grandmother. So, logically, the questions begin in Mrs. Richardson’s head: What is this year going to be like? Will I be able to reach her? Teach her?

No one can blame her. The unfortunate stories that walk the hallways of our schools would humble anyone. Not many people can comprehend the depth of struggle some of our students undergo on a daily basis. Teachers work hard to, though. They work very hard to - especially the passionate ones who really and truly care about their students’ learning. This profession is a roller coaster ride because most teachers ride the waves of emotion with their students. They share the burdens with their students and see the hurt in their eyes. Then, they burn with compassionate desires to make things better because the thought of outside circumstances stealing the education of their students is a troubling thought for a teacher.

Mrs. Richardson certainly felt Monica’s hurt. She experienced the pain of the little girl’s cuss words and dodged the flying objects of Monica’s frustration and anger. Still, her steadfast compassion disallowed her to give up on Monica.

Then, on top of everything else the little girl was forced to face, her grandmother unexpectedly died, forcing her to be handed over to foster care. It was a devastating blow to the already unsettled Monica. But, her teacher felt the blow, too.

Because that’s what teachers do. They care. Deeply.

Sometimes the only thing anyone can do is care. So, when Mrs. Richardson heard the horrible news about Monica, she found her student and just hugged her, wrapped her up in a momma hug, and held her. She promised she would be there all the way through the upcoming hard times, and guaranteed her unfaltering love and support.

Everything changed after that hug. Walls crumbled. Hearts mended. Learning happened. Not just learning, either, but leaps and bounds of learning! Monica gained two grade levels in both reading and math. That’s the power of the kind of life-changing relationships passionate teachers have with their students, and who better to walk through life’s adventures with than a passionate teacher like Mrs. Richardson.