Support for Teachers: A Letter to Those Ready to Educate Greatness

The next era of American education starts with you.

Let’s be real: most folks outside the classroom have zero idea what it’s like to teach right now.

You’re not just delivering lessons. You’re crafting miracles in 52-minute bursts - balancing IEPs, language acquisition, trauma histories, socio-emotional scaffolding, behavior plans, curriculum demands, and safety drills that should never be a normal part of childhood.

You’re doing all this while someone, somewhere - be it a politician, a parent, or a social media mob- is yelling at you. Telling you how to teach. What to teach. Accusing you of being too much, not enough, or somehow both.

Even with broken tools, we light the way. Teachers already know what it means to Educate Greatness.

And yet - you still show up.

You meet kids where they are. You plan lessons that somehow still spark curiosity. You respond to classroom chaos not with vengeance, but with poise, questions, and a focus on strengths - even when a student just took a verbal swing at your very soul.

You’re reflecting deeply on your own biases. You’re doing the internal work to unlearn what you were taught, even as you're trying to teach truth with integrity.

And now? Now you’re told you can't even feed your students or meet their basic emotional needs.

Let me say this plainly: you deserve support. Real, tangible support for teachers, not platitudes and pressure.

Conditions have gone from egregious to unacceptable. But it's clear that no one is going to change things for us, nor for our students. But I know this - teachers are survivors. We adapt. We resist. We rebuild.

So here’s my plea, my challenge, and my hope:

First: Resist. 

In whatever way you can.

Use your voice, your art, your votes, your conversations.

Protest. Write. Organize.

Teach the truth.

Second: When the time comes to rebuild, don’t step back. Step in. 

Be at the table. Demand that a new system rise from the ruins. One that’s evidence-based, learner-centered, inclusive, and humane. One where equity isn’t a buzzword but a blueprint. A system that operates laterally - on respect, not hierarchy - and is designed to meet the needs of all learners, not just those who fit the mold.

I’ll be outlining my version of that blueprint soon. (Spoiler: Educate Greatness is inspired by the highest-performing academic systems on earth.)

In the meantime, please hear this:

You are not alone. You are not invisible. You are not “just” a teacher.

You are a lifeline.

And when the smoke clears - and it will - we’ll still be here. Hands dirty, hearts open, building something better from the ground up.