Dear Educators In & Around Lewiston, ME,

I’m getting ready for bed, and you’re on my mind. I can’t imagine how you’re preparing yourselves for tomorrow. And my heart breaks for you.

Your biggest concern tomorrow should be how in the world you’re going to get your students to chill out enough so you all can just get through Halloween and maybe learn a little math along the way. Instead, you’re prepping to provide mental health triage. Lesson plans will take a back seat for the next few days, weeks, maybe longer. Lewiston is blanketed in heavy trauma, and you just can’t teach under those conditions.

Most educators I know are cut from the same cloth, and we’re all the first to be hypercritical of what we have planned for our students. We don’t want to let them down, whether it’s academics, their social-emotional needs, or just being the adult they need you to be. For you, the stakes are even higher, though

This thing you’re all facing in Maine, it doesn’t come with a curriculum, and helping kids manage the big feelings even adults are struggling with … well, there’s no rubric for that.

So my hope for you is that, when you head to school in the morning, you’ll be willing to give yourself grace and compassion. What your kiddos need from you is best provided when you are making sure you’ve taken care of yourself. Allow yourself to be uncertain, anxious, and vulnerable. You are a human being, experiencing big human feelings, in the midst of a deeply inhumane situation.

You are allowed to make mistakes.

You are allowed to ask for help.

You are allowed to need and take time for yourself.

You are allowed to do all the things you encourage your students to do when they are in a tough situation. Because you are all in a tough situation.

And if there’s a bright spot in all of this – and there must be – it’s exactly that. You are all in this together. Pre-k through high school seniors, student teachers to the veteran educator who’s been there decades. You are together.

Take care of each other.

Hug each other.

Love each other.

And know that there are so many out there thinking of and supporting you.

Take care

Mr. Ethan