Praise and Gratitude for Educators

      A decade ago, I was honored to be asked to give a guest lecture at a graduate school class in my area of professional practice—city and regional planning. It was a memorable experience, interacting with students who wanted to learn more about what I had to offer, and who offered their intelligence and ideas in return.

      I ended up doing guest lectures regularly over the following years, inspired and humbled with each experience. Then came the honor I believe will be a capstone of my career: an invitation to teach an entire semester of a course for a faculty member who would be going on sabbatical.

      It took me 10 seconds to say “yes.”

      Then came the possibly busiest five months I can remember. Selecting the readings, doing the readings, preparing lectures and presentations, interacting with students before, during, and after classes, being challenged to distill what I believed to be the important concepts of the course’s subject to pass along to this next generation of professionals.

      I had always held my teachers throughout my life in the highest regard. Education, I knew, was a foundational anchor of our culture. Now I was learning exactly how much work and time educators put into their teaching.

      I would get up in the morning and, first thing, review the notes and presentations I had prepared for that day’s class. After making revisions over breakfast, I would arrange for transportation to campus and begin my day, fitting in where I could my other non-teaching responsibilities. Classes themselves were the highlights of my days.

      In reflections at the end of a day I would remind myself: “Wait, you are just teaching one class. How does an educator juggle three, four, or more courses simultaneously?”

      At the end of the semester, I considered the possibility of teaching another class in the following semester. I did not think that I could summon the energy to do that again, surely not at my age. Which again enhanced my admiration for all the educators whom I have encountered in my life.