#134. Never Again

As all of us have had to adapt to our new world, including the ways we must teach and the ways our students must learn, it makes me realize how much I have taken for granted over the past 41 years of teaching. I wish I could get all of those years back. All of those special moments, but especially the ones I didn’t think were so special. The ones that I took for granted and didn’t take the time to savor. Oh, for the days that “zoom” was the sound little children made when they rode their bicycles really fast, when “distance learning” meant that you were sitting in the back row of the classroom and had to listen really hard to hear the teacher, when we learned that “virtual” meant “virtuous” in Latin class, when “remote instruction” was when you read the manual of your new TV to learn how the clicker worked, when “smart music” was when you studied for an exam with Mozart playing in the background with hopes it would raise your test score, when “blackboard” was something you used chalk to write on in class, when “social distancing” was simply not inviting someone to a party, or when “seesaw” was a childhood memory from the playground. Oh, how much has changed, and how much I took for granted. But the one thing this global horror has taught me – maybe more, reminded me – is how lucky I am to be a teacher, and how I will never, ever take any of those moments for granted, but instead cherish them the way I always should have. 

Peter Loel Boonshaft, Director of Education
KHS America