Teaching Colleagues:

We are always carrying you and your work and your students in our hearts and minds, but maybe no more so than right now. Teaching middle school and high school English has never been anything close to a walk in the park, but things are different in these days and months. We know from so many of you that you and your students are dealing with extra layers of emotion. Some are experiencing fear, sorrow, and uncertainty. Others are emboldened. And in the midst, so many teachers feel powerless.

We feel these differences too—and not just because the Folger sits behind the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court, —but because they keep showing up in our own lives and the lives of our families.

So . . . since this is us: can we talk? So that we can learn from one another?

In recent months, what has changed in your classroom? Will you send us your story? A student’s story? An example from your classroom? What you’re thinking and feeling about all of this? Send us any of this in a reply email, and we’ll begin posting your responses (including our own) on our blog for teachers.

You are, of course, anything but powerless . . . as my colleague Corinne Viglietta says, “You are beacons of light to the world, teaching kids to be curious, truthful, inclusive, and kind.” You keep on with that. And send us your story.

Love is love is love is love is love,

PO’B

Peggy O'Brien, Ph.D.
Director of Education
Folger Shakespeare Library