To say our hearts are broken does not tell enough about how we, as educators, are feeling about Newtown, Conn. It is unthinkable, unimaginable. Sadness from the deepest level of human experience is what we feel.

Love is what brought us to the field of education. Love for young people that are just developing and finding out who they are. Love that is expressed in the long hours we spend correcting papers and planning lessons so we can help direct the further learning of our students. Love expressed in the time spent thinking about how to reach that one student who’s struggling. We that work with children have varied roles, but within the specific parameters of those roles, we bring that love that drove us to be educators.

It’s love for the act of teaching itself, as well. It the amazing feeling we get when the “light bulb” goes on for a student. It’s the feeling we get when we see them blossom into their potential. We send them off and we don’t always hear back, but we know we have been part of something important and worthwhile.

There has been so much for us to deal with in recent years in our roles as educators. We have been accused of everything from not caring if our students succeed to not working hard enough to close the achievement gap. It’s hard to hear thoughts like these. Yet, we stay true to what we know is the right thing to do for our students, and for our society as a whole.

I, for one, am proud to be an educator. I know the truth, as do all educators, about what happens in our schools. I know that becoming an educator is a calling that has to be responded to. In spite of all the difficulties we have recently endured, it’s the job we were meant to do. We are where we belong.

– Cindy Prescott