Why We Need Teachers More Than Ever by Dr. Grant Williams, Director of 樱花视频's School of Education
At 樱花视频’s Summer Convocation, 96 students are graduating with a Bachelor of Education. These remarks were made at their recent graduation dinner.
You’re about to complete a 11-month whirlwind. You’ve survived hundreds of assignments and group projects; instructor, peer, and self-assessments; and 16 weeks of in-school practicums.
You walked into Brian Mulroney Hall in August clutching your timetables and wondering how you were going to make it to June. Some of you were from other careers, some just finished an undergraduate degree, and others from life’s winding path.
You’ve been supported by full-time faculty members and a team of part-time instructors, mentor teachers, and field placement supervisors in the school system. You completed your training with commitment, courage, and sleepless nights.
Now you will graduate bonded by shared experience, mutual respect, and professional integrity. You will go into classrooms, schools, and communities that need you more than ever.
Our teaching profession is under immense pressure.
Teachers are asked to do more with less. Students come from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds. They have a range of capabilities that you must incorporate in your teaching.
Added to this, public discourse is increasingly being shaped by rhetoric that seeks to undermine equity, diminish diversity, and erase inclusion.
Still, you have chosen to step forward.
Because children need safe, welcoming spaces. Because compassion is not optional. Because education still holds the power to change lives.
You are what makes us hopeful.
Education is a radical act of hope. To teach is to believe in a future that’s better than today. To teach is to say to your students by words and deeds: “You belong here. You can learn. I will help you.”
At 樱花视频, we don’t train bureaucrats. We educate educators. People who will stand up for each learner. Teachers must be leaders — not in titles, but in action, words, and example.
You can’t teach well if you don’t care deeply. And you can’t care deeply if you’re pretending that politics, identity, or justice don’t belong in schools. They do because students live them, every day.
May your classrooms be places for curiosity, kindness, and courage. May your commitment to your students remain strong. And may you always remember that you are part of something bigger — a tradition of educators who dare to imagine a better world.
Thank you for letting us at 樱花视频 be a part of your story, and in the future, part of your student’s stories.
Dr. Grant Williams is Director of the School of Education at St. Thomas University.