America’s Teachers Watched As Jill Biden Returned To The Classroom

“Every classroom offers a sense of possibility amid the worn books and clean whiteboards at the start of the new school year. A new adventure, messy and magical, is about to begin. The anticipation and excitement of this time of year is one of the best parts of being a teacher,” wrote First Lady Dr. Jill Biden for TIME yesterday. 

Much of America is heading back to the classroom, and today, that includes the first lady. Biden has taught English at Northern Virginia Community College since 2009. After months of online learning, Biden returned to the campus today to resume in-person teaching. She is the only first lady to hold a full-time position while serving in the position. 

Biden first turned heads when she chose to stay on at the college full-time while serving as second lady during the Obama administration. “Jill is always grading papers,” Michelle Obama told People Magazine in 2016. “Which is funny because I’d forget, ‘Oh yeah, you have a day job!’” 

On the campaign trail last year, Biden made it clear that as first lady, she would keep her post at the college and delivered her convention speech from her former classroom. She tweeted, “Teaching is not what I do. It’s who I am.” 

On her first full day as first lady, Biden held an event that honored teachers. “I could not wait one more day to have this meeting, because I have never felt prouder of our profession,” Biden said. In the weeks and months since, she’s met with students and teachers in Connecticut and Pennsylvania who’ve returned to in-person learning.

Biden, herself, now returns to the classroom at a time where anxiety and uncertainty have reached an all-time high in America’s classrooms. The Facebook group for “Teaching During COVID-19” currently counts 133,100 members. A RAND Corporation survey found that nearly one in four teachers considered leaving their jobs by the end of the 2020-2021 school year. 

In Nashville, Tennessee, school employee policies are being rewritten to account for Covid sick days. In Providence, Rhode Island, 10 percent of teachers have left the job. In San Antonio, Texas, there is an elementary school where every kindergarten teacher has tested positive for Covid. In Gwinnett County, Georgia, only 582 requests of 977 for substitute teachers are being fulfilled. In Dayton Beach, Florida, teachers are receiving threats in response to the enforcement of the county’s new mask requirement. In Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, teachers are unionizing to push forward a vaccine mandate. In Miami-Dade County, Florida 15 school district employees have died from Covid in the past ten days. 

The 2021-2022 school year has just begun, and headline after headline continues to paint a pretty grim picture of what is normally an exciting time for America’s teachers and students. Sarah Martin Bell, an 8th-grade social studies teacher in Horry County, South Carolina, says she felt a range of emotions heading into the school year. Just after reporting to work last month, Bell tested positive for Covid. Despite being fully vaccinated, she could not leave her bed for days. Unable to come into work, Bell’s colleagues stepped in to set up her classroom. She recovered and returned to work just one day before students were due to arrive. 

Bell says she feels lucky to have no lasting Covid symptoms, lucky to have colleagues who were willing to show up when she couldn’t, but is feeling the strain of yet another difficult school year. She, like many other educators, took notice when Biden headed back into the classroom today. “One of the main proponents of teaching is to lead by example, and that is exactly what she is doing,” explained Bell. “She is not only telling teachers that she supports us, but she is showing us every day. It means the world to have someone in her position possess the ability and courage to be in a classroom.” 

As any good teacher knows, it’s important to read the room, and Biden has done just that. She knows that teachers are under immense stress at the moment. She knows the coming weeks could very well change every carefully plotted back-to-school plan. Above all, she knows that the world watched today when she went back to teaching live and in-person and utilized that spotlight to shine a light on the teachers who didn’t go back with any fanfare.  

“Educators, always remember that right now, someone out there is a better thinker because of you,” wrote Biden. “Someone is standing a little taller because you helped her find the confidence she needed. People are kinder because you showed them what that meant. Your strength and resilience, your creativity and kindness, are changing lives and changing the world.”