Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I am writing to you from 20,000 feet aboard a Delta flight back to Boston from Minneapolis, where I attended my Uncle Jerry’s funeral this past weekend.  Jerry was an educator to the core, beginning as a high school history teacher and eventually pivoting to become a high school guidance counselor and parent educator. His devotion to his students and their families over 40 years was matched only by a similar devotion to his own large extended family and to the many friends he collected over a lifetime.  All of us were privileged to learn many lessons from Jerry – the importance of authentic connection and mutuality, the power of laughter and humor for its own sake and as a balm for life’s inevitable challenges, and an abiding faith in his fellow human beings to do hard things together.  

Jerry not only believed in the power of “we;” he lived it.  In a eulogy, one of Jerry’s closest cousins reminded us that Jerry was able to ask for help when he needed it.  That comment resonated, as I had just read Angela Duckworth’s article reminding us that the most successful people are the ones who seek help from others in the face of a challenge. “From an early age, we suffer from what cognitive psychologists call the illusion of self-sufficiency, overlooking how much we owe our skills to other people,” she wrote. 

Collaboration, community, connection – these qualities may seem almost quaint in the face of contemporary society’s emphasis on individual success and quarterly earnings reports. But we know from research and life experience that humans are wired for connection; it is how from time immemorial we have built our society,  from the smallest tribal campfire to our most technologically complicated missions to the moon. In decades past, Americans saw themselves not only as individual achievers, but also as barn-raisers. I fear that sense of collectivity is getting lost amidst the uncertainty of our times.  It’s no wonder that loneliness was named an epidemic by a recent U.S. Surgeon General.

In my opinion, educators are uniquely positioned to revive the barn-raising spirit. The generation you are rearing in your schools and classrooms is struggling with mental health, food and housing insecurity, the negative effects of social media, and numerous other issues that are a reflection of a society that has, for the past few decades, been shaped by the pursuit of an American dream that turns out to be out of reach for most people. As educators, you can demonstrate that humans can accomplish more when they work together; you can create environments in which every student is known and welcomed and where the focus is on building a community of lifelong learners who support each other and have each other’s backs. You are not expected to be society’s saviors, but you have an unparalleled platform to model democracy in action.  

My Uncle Jerry loved being an educator; it was core to his identity – as it is for so many of you. May the new school year bring you as much joy as it brought him year after year.

In connection,

Jane