By: Amelia-Rose Williams
When I first heard of Abbott Elementary, it was through TikTok. I saw funny clips that made me laugh, and I wanted to eventually dive deeper to see what I could find out about the series. Recently, my family has completely moved away from having a satellite network. We decided to switch over to Hulu TV fully. As I was browsing the catalog, I came across Abbott Elementary and fell in love with the series.
Abbott Elementary highlights the perspective of educators everywhere. Teaching is a full-time job, you can have days where you feel completely defeated because a child is misbehaving and you can’t seem to understand why that is. There are going to be days when you yourself are exhausted and you don’t feel like coming into work, but you are reminded of who you show up for and you persevere anyways.
While some people may believe that teaching isn’t rewarding or fun, understand that it is vital. The lessons you learn in school are just as important as the broader lessons you learn throughout life. What teachers give to students is just not something that you can describe simply in words. However, the weight of that responsibility echoes when a child lacks the education they deserve.
Recently, in our country, there has been an ongoing attack on education. Coming from a family of educators and growing up in a small town where education is and was extremely valuable to the success of our town. I’ve learned how important being a teacher truly is. It’s a gift to watch your students go from kindergarten to high school and become young adults.
As students, we learn, grow and experience so much throughout our educational careers. We learn about colors, shapes, numbers and how to speak. We learn about friendships, sports, clubs and hobbies throughout our education. Without education, I don’t think our society would function the way that it does. The importance of education is more than what we learn in school, but what it provides us with mentally.
We learn the importance of our history, how far we’ve come and where we are going. Through the sciences, we learn how to create and build, and how our world continues to fuel itself. It’s heartbreaking that with all the vital skills we learn in school, there are individuals out there who want to gatekeep important parts of our past, deny history or use propaganda to misinform people of the truth for personal gain.
Our educators are worth protecting; without them, I know I wouldn’t have made it this far. As this problem is ongoing, I watch as our youth struggle with concepts like writing, socialization and important fundamental skills needed to advance to the next step. They are stepping into jobs, with a lack of professionalism, due to a lack of skills being taught or emphasized throughout their educational careers. If this problem continues, I fear there will be a huge deficit in the mental development of our youth.