VIEWPOINT | A message for South Dakota teachers

Guest column by S.D. Education Secretary Joseph Graves

Life is a series of choices. Choosing well is the difference between happiness and unhappiness, integrity and despair – at least, in the terms used by psychologist Erik Erikson. Living a life of meaning and being able to reflect on one’s life as meaningful is what allows for integrity and joy; it’s what evades the darkness. 

It is a sentiment worth remembering during this Teacher Appreciation Week, May 6-10, the annual celebration of those who educate our young people from preschool to high school. 

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Over the last several months, we’ve focused quite a lot on the importance of compensation to enhance the self-perception and happiness of educators. It is an important factor, but not the most important factor, of satisfaction with the choice of career. That factor, I believe, is the innate value of the profession. 

And in that department, I believe you will be hard put to find many equal to teaching. For a teacher takes small children and guides them on their way, teaches them the things they need to know in life, academic and otherwise, and accompanies them in their defeats and in their triumphs. A teacher meets middle school humor with a chuckle and middle school angst with understanding and empathy. A teacher stands aside as the high school student begins to truly make their own way, to surpass their master, to reach out for goals and dreams they can only imagine. 

Teaching is worth doing. It is worth spending your life doing. As we say in our teacher recruitment and retention marketing campaign, teaching is a profession which “Makes a Future Making Futures.” I didn’t write that, but I wish I had – it elegantly captures what teaching is all about. 

During this week set aside to recognize and celebrate South Dakota teachers, I invite you to visit SDteach.org to hear from some of our state’s finest educators. Their passion and commitment to their students is inspiring and reflective of teachers across the state. I also invite you to thank an educator this week, and perhaps encourage someone you know to consider how they might “Make a Future Making Futures.” 

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Teaching is hard, and it’s gotten harder in recent years. Yet the challenges it presents also give rise to life-affirming triumphs as the days turn into weeks and months, and your students learn and grow into that potential that you uncovered with your encouragement and persistence. 

Thank you to all of our teachers across South Dakota. You are lifting up our kids and our grandkids. You are preparing them for their very bright futures. And you are guiding their education and development. For all that and so much more, thank you. 

Dr. Joseph Graves is the South Dakota Secretary of Education.