Teaching is About Relationships

Dr. Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005), influential and groundbreaking professor of child development (Cornell University), psychologist and co-founder of the Federal Head Start program in the US said:

"Every kid requires someone in his or her life who is absolutely crazy about them."

The more encouraging and positive and concerned important people in the child's life are, the more positive the outcome for that child's development.

And of course teachers are important people in the lives of children.

Here is Rita Pierson's version of this message

 “Every child deserves a champion—an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be.”

Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, "They don't pay me to like the kids." Her response: "Kids don't learn from people they don't like.'" A rousing call to educators to believe in their students and actually connect with them on a real, human, personal level.