One year while on vacation at the beach, I saw a long line of random people walking into the water, side by side arms locked. Curious, I asked, “What are they doing?” Silently I watched as the wall of bodies plowed through the waves crashing into them. With no reply I determined they were a rescue mission of some sort. “They are training for a swim rescue,” I was later told by my brother-in-law who had been a lifeguard. This rescue team continued to fight through the waves until they were just shy of going over their heads. Then they turned back around and came back to the shore. Then they proceeded to walk down shore to where the previous line had ended and began to brave the waves once again. Side by side, arm in arm, they battled through contrary waters, staying in step with their rescue team. They did this a few times before they came back to shore. My brother-in-law went on to explain that this was how they would look for bodies in the water. When they locked arms, it kept them together like a wall the waves would now have to fight to break apart.

This example has become poignant to me in this time. I see teachers and parents, teachers and administrators, teachers and teachers who have turned against one another. The issue with this is we are all in the same boat facing the same problems. We need each other. We have fierce waves to brave, and water to tread, and most importantly, children to rescue. It is time for us to lock arms and to brave these treacherous waters and fight them like a wall against the beating waves. The only way that a body would be found in an endless ocean is by the joining and locking of arms so tightly that they could not be broken. To all my fellow educators, it’s time to lock arms. There’s a generation of lost children to rescue.