Transcript:
Greetings beloved in Christ, I hope that you are well on this day. In this season all around us, the academic year is drawing to a close and I want to take the opportunity to say thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you to all who serve in our education system. I want to thank the teachers for their hard work and their dedication to this calling of education. And I do believe that education is a calling. I want to say thank you to all of the school administrators and school counselors who work hard to provide environments that are safe for all of the students. I want to thank the parent volunteers who give of their time and of their resources to help our school programs work. I most especially want to thank those who serve in our public schools. My husband, Mark, and I are products of public education from kindergarten through high school and we recognize the value and importance of our public schools.
Our public schools invite children from all over from all sorts of circumstances and the opportunity that I had as a student to learn not only from my teachers but to learn from my fellow students who didn't look like me or think like me or talk like me. From those students who were from different socioeconomic groups, from those students who had a different way of being in the world, all of that education helped make me who I am today. And I especially treasure an educational system that is committed to teaching students how to think, but not what to think. Over the past several decades, our public education system has taken a beating and our teachers and administrators have born the brunt of that burden. Many teachers provide their own supplies. Many teachers go out of their way to do the very best they can for all of their students from the most advanced to the one who needs the most assistance.
I have so much gratitude and so much respect for those who are committed to public education. And I invite you all over the Episcopal Church in Colorado to pray, to pray for our public education system, to pray for all teachers, to pray for administrators and counselors who willingly bear this load for our students. And I want to congratulate them all. You've finished another year. You've made it. And again, say thank you for all that you do. Blessings.