Writer: Support our ‘angels in education’

Coni Meyer

Loyal

Dear editor, I have been trying to find a way to share with my community what the Loyal School District means to me. How can I best express how important the school is to the future of Loyal without betraying the students and families that mean so much to me?

Today, as I was talking with Mr. Bennett, our playground supervisor, I was reminded of a Kevin HoneyCutt presentation we attended a few years ago. You can find Kevin’s TEDx Talk on YouTube titled “The angels of my education,” but let me share a few pieces of it with you.

He starts his talk with a black and white picture of himself from 1966 and goes on to describe his childhood.

“There are some things I don’t know as a child. I don’t know we are poor. I don’t know my father is an alcoholic. I don’t know he is a criminal. I don’t know he is going to move us and that I am going to live in 20 states. I didn’t pick any of that. I am just a kid that happened to land in this life and that is not all bad news because you can learn wherever you land.”

He goes on to show pictures of the angels of his childhood. Mrs. Burgoon, a paraprofessional who did recess duty and would hug him, even if he might have head lice. Mrs. Anderson, the elementary secretary who wrote him notes every day telling him all the things he would accomplish. At night, while his dad was calling him names in an alcoholic rage, Kevin would go into a shoebox and pull out those notes. They were proof that someone believed in him.

His eighth-grade teacher talked him into trying out for a play, where he discovered he was a pretty good actor. For the first time in his life, he saw something on his dad’s face he had never seen, pride. It was Ms. Martin that made that happen. As an adult, Kevin was the first member of his family to graduate from high school. He went on to college and Dorothy Anderson, the elementary secretary, took him in and treated him like her son because she knew how hard life had been for him. He became an art teacher because of the influence of these angels in his life.

This is what goes on in our schools. This is what anyone who works in a school building is doing. We know families are struggling today and we know children are trying to figure out how to navigate their lives. We are here to listen, to guide, to correct, to help students learn from their life experiences and sometimes provide what they need so they do not lose hope. Oh, and make sure their education makes it possible for them to fulfill their dreams.

I cannot speak for all schools, but I know what I witness here. The same people you see on Sunday mornings show up here every day putting into practice what they profess to believe. They are the boots on the ground, the “angels” of education.

You are a part of this story as well. When you support your schools by volunteering or attending sporting events, concerts and plays, you are a part of opening the doors for children to become all they can be. You are the encouragement we as adults need as we do our best to help support the families in our care because it IS very challenging on a day-in, day-out basis.

A final quote from Kevin: “As mentors of children, we are their surrogate belief until they get their own.”

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