Being an educator is a profession, but most people who choose to be teachers aren’t there for the money.
Their career choice comes from a deep need to nurture and develop their students and communities.
Recently, Chicago teacher LaShonda Carter showed how being an educator goes well beyond what happens in the classroom.
Carter was up late on the morning of August 23rd and received a message on Facebook from Larresha Plummer, 18, a former student at Harper High School. “We always talk, even though I left Harper, I still keep in contact with all of my students,” Carter said told CNN.
Plummer has a three-week old baby named Taliyah and was struggling to get by. She wanted to attend a job fair the next day, but didn’t have a ride or anyone to babysit.
“There was no way I would have let her take a baby in a bus, I told her right away that I would pick her up in the morning,” Carter told CNN.
Hours later, Carter picked up Plummer and Taliyah and drove them to the job fair. She sat with the baby in her car while Plummer filled out job applications. Carter posted a video on Facebook to ask for help for Plummer and her baby.
“I’m reaching out because I need you alls help. I need my village because this beautiful little baby needs some things,” Carter said. “I'm going to do what I can as much as I can as an educator.”
The Heart of Educator Pt.2 (I need your help)
Posted by LaShonda Carter on Thursday, August 23, 2018
After the job fair, Carter took Plummer to apply for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), to get some milk for Taliyah.
She also started a GoFundMe page for additional help.
She also gave some important advice to her former student at a pivotal time in her life.
“My previous student needs to know she can still be successful, even though she's a teenage mother. A teenage mother does not equal failure,” she wrote on Facebook.
According to Carter, Plummer now has a job and is looking to attend college in the fall.
Carter’s actions are just another example why educators are a vital part of our communities. And why real communities, where people look out for each other, are so important.
“As an educator, it goes beyond the classroom. There are things that nobody ever knows that educators do,” she wrote on Facebook.