Actually Kool-Aid has never been my thing. Mom would not have it in the house when we were growing up. But the “teacher Kool-Aid” I am talking about is the inspiring rhetoric surrounding what it means to be a great educator. Do you spend your days doing your work, but then getting sidetracked into reading articles here or there which sometimes lead you to other articles? I do. Mainly about education, and so I just came upon the 2026 Teacher of the Year video on YouTube. The winner was Leon Smith, a teacher in Pennsylvania, and the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCsymXt7NYg) is just under four minutes.
Everything Smith is talking about is something I can relate to; I think many teachers can relate to it. He says “I want my students to realize, that the world is theirs and that they can really achieve anything…”. He goes on to say that “teaching is a mission for me.” It must be something in us as teachers, to look upon our students and believe in each person’s potential, and to be inspired to figure out how to feel and support that potential in each individual. The mission gives us the power and energy to prepare each day, week, and year, knowing that whatever we did before will need to be adjusted for this new group, for this new time. It is a forever puzzle that is renewed with each new group of students.
Smith goes on to say “When you think about the art of teaching, I really think it comes from you, as the individual, I just, want to be the best version of myself for my students, I owe it to them. At the heart of teaching is always the educator and their relationship with students. I think that always should be at the central focus.” This is something I consider often with the onslaught of AI in education. AI is bringing some disruption to education, some deserved, but the promise is way overblown when people talk about replacing teachers. “The educator and their relationship with students” is a fundamental human connection that has no doubt existed since the beginning of society, long before formalized education. We are talking about trust, human connection, and the human consideration a teacher can offer to students living in the natural world. AI is not designed for this and will never be more than an imitation game. An incredibly useful tool for the teacher to wield, but not a tool that wields the teacher.
Smith goes on to tell of his reaction to winning the Teacher of the Year, and he said “it just reconnected me with the purpose that I’ve always had, really elevating the profession.” I love that “elevating the profession” phrase, as when we work hard as teachers, we do have the potential to elevate the profession. I feel that good teaching is highly undervalued. In the age of AI, the value of a good teacher will INCREASE, not decrease. However, I am not sure society is going to recognize the increased value of good teaching, or human connection in general. Good teaching has always been so difficult to evaluate, and the subjectivity of evaluating teaching has left it grossly undervalued. What I like about Smith is that I bet he has always been teaching with the same heart, belief, and passion since the beginning. So, I drink this kind of “teacher Kool-Aid,” these stories of what great teachers are doing and how they conceptualize their work and education in general. And like Smith, my mom was the inspirational educator in my life that made me feel it was a profession worth pursuing. So while we could not have the sugary technicolor Kool-Aid of the 80s, I think mom would approve of this “teacher Kool-Aid” of the 2020s.