God Bless Our Teachers

As Catholic Schools Week comes to a close, Meg Herriot is grateful for teachers facing unprecedented challenges in their work.

Our teachers have had to creatively deal with many new situations and experiences over the last year. Sometimes, it’s a kid who forgot to mute and says, “Class never ends on time! It’s always late,” or it may be kids shooting out emojis at prayer time that challenge teachers. Sometimes, there are awkward comments from kids that the teacher knows are not just overhead by other kids, but by every parent who is in the vicinity of the kid’s computer.

God bless our teachers and principals and school staff.

Sometimes, supervising virtual school, I think of how it would be a really good Saturday Night Live skit, if I weren’t the parent. There are lessons I’ve been teaching at home about proper Zoom conduct that I won’t share and embarrass my kid, but just know, I’d love to share in laughter. I’ve found myself doing and saying things I never could have imagined a year ago.

I’ve been witness to such patience and adaptability, it really gives me hope -- for all of us. Whether it’s technical issues, teaching kids proper use of emojis and backgrounds, or ignoring what’s going on in the background, everyone has had to grow in patience. Kids are experiencing stress from the stresses of their family, the environment, and all the pieces of childhood that seem lost. While adults are well equipped to know, “this too shall pass,” our kids don’t have the same history of experiences to feel with certainty that their “normal” life will return, eventually and maybe with some changes. The gift of school, routine, and relationships outside of the home help them cope. These gifts also are gifts to the parents as they strive to bring some type of “normalcy” to the household.

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Whether it’s technical issues, teaching kids proper use of emojis and backgrounds, or ignoring what’s going on in the background, everyone has had to grow in patience. #catholicmom

There are Zoom temper tantrums -- it sounds like all of my friends with kids a similar age have to cope with these. For Pete’s sake, I have to deal with adults throwing Covid temper tantrums, so I can totally understand kids are even less equipped.

I’m amazed teachers keep a straight face when they see parents scurrying in the background to find papers or glue or to stop the cat from taking out a Christmas tree ... maybe I should be grateful that everyone kind of appears on a Brady Bunch screen and it’s a little harder to pick out the details.

God bless everyone, but this year I’m going to ask for extra blessings on teachers and our school staff!

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