This painting by Joan Baez celebrates the courage, commitment, and articulateness of Emma Gonzalez of Margery Stoneman Douglas High School. It also reminds me of so many bright and beautiful students I have taught in public high schools. Their names and faces flash before me. I thank Emma Gonzalez and my students for who they have become. I am grateful for the privilege of having been a teacher.

To be part of helping our students to discover and shape their own values,
To encourage and guide our students to be critical and creative thinkers,
To give our students effective and thoughtful ways to respond to what life does to them,
THAT IS WHY WE TEACH.