With Love and Gratitude for Educators

By Stacey DeWitt, CEO of CWK Network and Executive Producer of Defining US

As we begin the new year, I am filled with gratitude for each of you who are either educators or who play a supporting role in improving America’s education system. As clients, colleagues, partners, and friends, you inspire us with hope for the year ahead.

The past two years have been and continue to be incredibly challenging for many; but perhaps no other collective groups have been asked to give of themselves more during Covid than our healthcare workers and educators.

We light candles and cheer for those who care for the physically sick, quick to understand that we literally cannot live without them. But, not so much for our educators, the wide group of humanitarians that work in schools, who are more often criticized than cheered.

It seems schools have become the punching bag for the fearful and scapegoat for the anxious as pundit’s haze and malign those who daily improve the lives for millions of children and families.

We watch as critics whip masses into frenzied skeptics who believe assumptions and accusations, unable or unwilling to understand with it really takes for administrators, teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, maintenance workers, school safety officers and many others to help children survive and thrive in a pandemic.

And yet, despite the chorus of commentators, most educators are still in the arena, showing up daily to provide learning, food, safety, and stability, and order in the chaos. How do the unsung heroes of our school systems do it? How do they continue to sustain in unsustainable conditions? I believe the answer is love. As our colleague Dr. Yolanda Sealy Ruiz reminds us, “love is the one human emotion that can get people through anything”; that love is something our staff is privileged to witness as we capture educator and student stories in classrooms every day.

In 2021, we were honored to finish producing Defining US, a feature length documentary amplifying the voices of students and educators on the frontlines of improving the lives of students of color. We interviewed over 40 educators for the documentary and each talked about love. Without question, it was the core individual and collective message of the group.

It’s difficult to spend time in classrooms and miss that love. Even in the worst circumstances, the most challenging environment, it’s hard not to see the love that educators have for the children and families they serve. It’s why they get in and stay in the work. It’s why they put in more hours than most for less pay. It’s what you see when they feed a hungry child, calm an anxious teen, and provide words of hope to a struggling mother.

In 2022, the voices of educators need to be heard. We can’t silence the critics, but we can remind America what President Teddy Roosevelt taught us all, It’s Not the Critic Who Counts.

Thank you for all you do on behalf of students everywhere. We are grateful to each of you. And this year, more than ever, we are dedicated to shining a light on your lessons of love that help us all better understand ourselves and each other in what may be the most trying and transformational decade we will see in our lifetime.