Teacher Tom: EdHeroes: What if Education Focused on the Needs of Children and Families?

Teacher Tom: EdHeroes: What if Education Focused on the Needs of Children and Families?

EdHeroes: What if Education Focused on the Needs of Children and Families?

I was recently honored to be asked to shoot a short video for the Rybakov Foundation's 2021 EdHeroes conference. Their mission is to support families around the world by providing them access to quality education that is align first and foremost with the interests of families. 

I can think of no better way to transform our educational ecosystem than to focus on the needs of children and families. We all want our children to grow up to be competent citizens who can create, love, and choose. Without that, the rest is meaningless.

Anyone who knows me, is aware than I find it difficult to keep my remarks (on pretty much any topic) to the 15-20 minute range. I decided to tell my own story of growing from parent to educator. (For the full-sized version of the video, click here.)

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Teacher Tom: EdHeroes: What if Education Focused on the Needs of Children and Families?

NYC Educator: Letter to Staff--We are union, and we demand safety for us, our students, and our families.

NYC Educator: Letter to Staff--We are union, and we demand safety for us, our students, and our families.

Letter to Staff--We are union, and we demand safety for us, our students, and our families.

Dear colleagues,

I hope you and your families are doing well and keeping occupied at this extremely trying time. I apologize in advance for being an agent of further complication, but we all have our jobs to do. Our job now is to stand as one and fight for our safety, and the safety of our families and community. 

I often say we are the second most important outside influence for our students. The most important outside influence would be medical professionals. There is nothing more basic or fundamental than health and safety. As much as I want my students to learn and love English, their health and wellness comes first. That goes for us, our families, and our students’ families as well. 

Every time I read someone advocating opening buildings, they have a proviso. They say of course, if it doesn’t work out, we’ll go back to remote learning. In fact there are a lot of places where it didn’t work out, and they did just that. There’s Israel, South Korea, multiple schools in the south and southwest, and universities that saw immediate rises in infection levels, while starting below Mayor de Blasio’s much ballyhooed 3% positive level (so much for that). Chapel Hill closed in one week.

There’s a real cost to these openings, and that cost is the health of those who attend. I know some of you who’ve been very sick. I know some of you who’ve lost CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Letter to Staff--We are union, and we demand safety for us, our students, and our families.