Our Teachers Are Our First Ethical Leaders
Author
Bob Bandoni
06th of September, 2021
Category
Blog
There is no social institution further upstream of all our challenges than schools. Pause for a moment during these opening days, and you will see in our schools the entirety of our next generation, all in various stages of preparation to participate, even to lead, our democracy, our world.
How this next generation will participate, how they will lead, will be shaped in our schools by the noble educators who nurture their development, who care for our most precious resource.
Ask any American to recall their teachers’ names and most of them can, their names and the influence they had on their journey. Teachers shape us.
The best teachers do so by weaving into their assigned task something much greater than content or skill. That is to shape character. We have relied on them to do so since before we were a nation.
These teachers are our society’s first ethical leaders. They nurture in our children individual flourishing in the context of social life, responsibility to others. They help them understand and feel the relationship between their own growth, their own prosperity, and that of their community, their world.
As the new school year unfolds across our nation, we ought to thank teachers in anticipation of their responsibility to all of us, the noble assignment to teach the next generation to be humane.