OK, it’s hard to say goodbye to summer, especially if yours has been free form.
But it’s not really fair to school, or education in general, for kids, parents and even teachers to get all bummed out about a return to the classroom.
Education should be celebrated, elevated, cherished. It provides opportunities for growth. It can transform people into their best selves and lead to lasting interests, friendships and self-confidence.
Mostly, though, not everyone in the world has access to education, which is why it should be viewed as a gift.
At the risk of sounding like I’m trying to make you clear your dinner plate because other people are starving, it’s important to know that some 60 million children around the world do not get to go to school because of war, poverty or gender bias, according to the website Global Citizen.
So, America, let’s dry the tears and lose the woe-is-me attitude. Going back to school is a good thing.
Education is power. It has the ability to make someone’s day and life, to turn disadvantaged into advantaged, to open doors, open minds and level even the most sink-hole-ridden playing fields.
It needs to be played up, not put down. Even in August. Perhaps especially in August.
I know, easy for me to say, right? Well, don’t take my word for it, take the word of these local teachers who love this time of year.
Pleased as punch to be going back to school
Sparkle Rogers is pumped about returning to the classroom. Now in her 14th year of teaching, she will welcome first-graders to King Elementary School in Harvey on Sept. 3.
But she also recognizes that most kids and parents are feeling the end-of-summer drag right now.
“I have two sons and we just registered for school,” she said. School officials asked if the boys were ready to come back.
“They said “yeah,'” she said. “And the officials said, ‘You’re the first ones to say yes.'”
Rogers wants to change that attitude. Because school is important and because learning has come a long way since the days when children sat for hours at a desk and took dictation from a teacher, which is how many parents might be remembering it.
“Now it’s more student-centered. It’s exploring. It’s discovery,” she said.
“When I was in school there was rote learning. Everything was about memorization. Now we’re asking them to make real-life applications,” she said. “We don’t even sit in rows anymore. Everything is about creating a community feeling.”
Making school an extension of the community and instilling a love for learning is the goal these days, she said.
“If kids have a love for learning, it will continue outside the classroom, they’ll explore deeper, read on their own,” she said.
School is not just in a building, she added. It’s an attitude, a place where the journey starts.
Although education has changed vastly, she said, there is still a reticence among parents to get their kids to the school doorstep on the first day of class.
“It’s getting rougher to get kids to register on time. When they don’t start on time, they’re already behind,” she said.
“We need to motivate parents to get on board,” she said.
How?
Remind them that this is their child’s chance to become a better citizen, a more educated individual and, well, basically anything they put their mind to.
She knows parents can be overwhelmed with work and household duties so she tries to make communication frequent, varied and interesting.
In addition to emails and homework communications, once a month parents get a phone call about something awesome their child did, she said.
“You have to develop a relationship with your parents. It can be a grand effort but I’m with their children six hours a day. It’s important,” she said.
Education is an opportunity to create your own future, regardless of where you come from, she said.
Rogers said teachers in West Harvey-Dixmoor District 147 are fortunate in that their return to work is met with fanfare, even a parade with pompons.
“Every year, we’re ‘invited’ to come back,” she said. “It’s very welcoming.”
“Did you earn your paycheck today?”
All of Julie Boone’s role models were teachers.
“My parents were both teachers, and then on top of that I had amazing educators like Mrs. Fontane who played the piano and sang with us, Mrs. Paz who read us The Witches in second grade, and Ms. Czworniak for AP U.S. History who always held us to high standards,” said Boone, who teaches Advanced Placement U.S. History at Alan B. Shepard High School in Palos Heights.
“It was hard to not want to be like my parents and role models – so I guess I always thought I would like to be a teacher,” she said.
Her dad, she said, hung a sign in the faculty bathroom, “Did you earn your paycheck today?”
“He’d say things like, ‘If your top three reasons for teaching are June, July, and August you should find a different profession,'” she said.
Through their body language, enthusiasm for their subject matter and level of preparedness, teachers bring that into the classrooms how they feel about the job and kids pick up on it fairly easily, she said.
Now in her 13th year, Boone said she frames her job as a partnership with students so the start of a new year always feels “hopeful.”
The beginning, she said, “is a new opportunity with each kid and each class to set the tone for the year.”
But each new year brings uncertainty, for everyone.
“I think, what will my new students be like? They think about who they will sit with at lunch or whether or not they can open their locker.” she said.
“We are all a little more vulnerable this time of year,” she added.
“As a group out in the wild,” she said. “I find teenagers detestable. But in my classroom and in our high school setting we have an agreed upon partnership. We have shared goals of self-improvement.”
All of the things teachers do in their various curricula, activities or athletics forge pathways for meeting that shared goal, Boone said.
“I love working with my students to help them become better readers, writers, thinkers and humans. I happen to use social studies content as my vehicle,” she said.
“But what other job beyond teaching has such an aspirational goal? I feel very fortunate.”
Advocating for kids with special needs
Bridget Golden leads a self-contained special education class at Sorrick Elementary School in Palos Hills. She said she believes lots of teachers are eager to get back into the classroom.
What does she like most about the start of a new school year?
“The people,” she said. “Reconnecting with all your colleagues and students. After you’re off for two months it’s exciting to be back together.
“There are a lot of good things happening in education because of all the passionate and dedicated people in education,” she said.
School, she said, is a community, a place where kids belong and can grow together. Going back to school, for many, can be like coming home after a wonderful trip — bittersweet, but comforting.
While teaching can be a tough job, she said, “it’s so necessary, Our world depends on education.”
In addition to lessons, Golden said school can be a place that can make a kid’s day in simple ways: a smile, a hug, a good conversation.
“Those connections really go such a long way,” she said.
It can be a reciprocal thing. Her students have lifted her mood and taught her life lessons that she says have helped her become a better person.
“I feel so lucky to have this opportunity each year,” she said.
The best teachers, she said, are the one who truly want the best for kids and who see a kid as a whole child, not just a test score.
Golden taught junior high in North Palos School District 117 for three years and is currently teaching kindergarten and first grade.
“It’s amazing to see the kids grow,” she said.
Watching children blossom from terrified little beings who are unsure about leaving Mom and Dad to confident little members of the classroom community is rewarding, she said.
But she also understands that the beginning of a new school year can bring jitters. Kids might be nervous about new teachers, new classmates, new studies.
Parents can help their children prepare for the new academic year by going on the school’s website, looking at their child’s teacher’s picture, talking about the transition and how they’ll be with other kids.
“Talk about the things they’ll see and do. Help them learn how to treat other kids who look different or speak a different language or do things differently and have different abilities,” she said. “You’re never too early to have these kinds of conversations. It can make the world a kinder place.”
Golden said she has a passion for kids with disabilities and helping them receive the same opportunities as everyone else.
“I feel very fortunate to be able to do something I truly enjoy. I get so much of a reward out of doing this every day,” she said. “By no means is every day easy, and some days you go home disappointed or upset, but it is nice to be in a field where I feel supported by my colleagues and my students and their families.”
That said, she added, she has nothing against summer and the eight week-break it affords teachers.
“Summer is a special time,” she said. “So I think a little sadness is fair. Enjoy these last few days.”
And then get at it.
