From now until the end of the month, it is likely that in a restaurant somewhere you鈥檒l find a large table put together with a group of people engaged in animated discussion.
There is a better than even chance that they鈥檒l be public-school teachers celebrating the retirement, after 30 to 35 years, of one of their own.
Retirement for a teacher is a big step, and if you ask retired teachers how they are enjoying retirement, they鈥檒l inevitably say, 鈥淔ine, but I miss the kids.鈥� Not the workplace, not colleagues, not the noise and confusion of a busy classroom, but 鈥渢he kids.鈥�
The best teachers I ever worked with or had the chance to observe led their kids to unexplored places illuminated by levels of success in learning that the students had no idea how to find by themselves.
And, yes, in many cases it was a touch of acting, a touch of charisma, that held the students in thrall as they were being led down that learning pathway.
I鈥檝e watched music teachers who helped kids find music within themselves where it was thought no music existed, science teachers who taught science as if it were some kind of magician鈥檚 mystery, geography teachers who transformed a map into a living representation of the complexity of our planet鈥檚 experience.
Yet excellence in teaching is too rarely celebrated outside the profession itself.
We publicly celebrate excellence in athletics, in literature, in forms of creativity such as visual and performing arts, but not our best teachers, and the best teachers I ever watched were certainly performing artists of a kind.
Nobody has ever been able to convince me, and the best teachers know this, that kids, no matter what obstacles rise up in front of them, don鈥檛 want to be successful.
Some kids have been taught somehow, somewhere, by somebody that they will never achieve much and they鈥檒l act it out accordingly.
That teacher at the retirement event has probably spent a career trying to turn that around.
That teacher understood that before the erosive wearing away of their confidence in themselves, those kids wanted to be just as good at games, to be able to run as fast, ride a bike or throw a ball just as well as the other kids.
The best teachers devote their imagination and experience to finding a path that will bring those kids back to hope about themselves.
It is that which teachers miss most in retirement, leading kids down the 鈥測es we can鈥� path to learning.
In the U.S., voters twice elected a middle-class black man with a funny name to their highest office because he successfully campaigned on a platform of hope, of 鈥測es we can.鈥�
In Canada, a major party has now chosen a young man with a famous name and heritage as its leader.
Again, it was a combination of charisma and hope for something better that got him past the post. It is interesting to us educators that one of the most derogatory things his political opposition can find to say about him is that he was 鈥渏ust a teacher.鈥�
鈥淛ust a teacher,鈥� as if a teacher鈥檚 ability to elevate thinking and employ a combination of humanity, empathy, skill and intelligence has no place in aspirants to political leadership.
In his book Teaching as Leadership: The Highly Effective Teacher鈥檚 Guide to Closing the Achievement Gap, author Steven Farr outlines six leadership principles that guide our best teachers; setting ambitious goals, encouraging students to work hard, plan purposefully, execute plans with judgement and flexibility, continually seek ways to be more effective and work relentlessly to navigate challenges.
That is what the best teachers do every day 鈥� in a room full of kids.
So raise a cup to those teachers who are retiring this month, and maybe, if you know one, thank him or her for what they did.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
