Gratitude for retiring teacher

Chicago Public Schools educators are rarely if ever just teachers. This reality is especially true for educators in underresourced communities. Visit a school in North Lawndale and ask a teacher to describe their work — you’ll likely hear a sweeping anecdote about public service rather than a recitation of their actual job description.

My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Rita McNeal, is one of the best models of such service, and there is perhaps no better time to say “thank you” than on the occasion of her retirement.

For 35 years, Mrs. McNeal gave students at Mason Elementary license to dream. The efforts she skillfully marshaled to meet the unique needs of her students and the community are a hallmark of this undertaking. What is more, they are illustrative of her core essence, which embodies a persistent commitment to “go above and beyond the call of duty” for those we love.

Whether we were surveying the literary classic “A Raisin in the Sun” or learning about self-regard through Nikki Giovanni’s “Ego Trippin’ ” or belting out our Grammy-worthy rendition of “Night Time Is the Right Time,” that commitment transformed our classroom into a workshop of possibility and a safe harbor from the downright frightening social problems that lay outside it.

Granted, some time has passed for me since the fifth grade. Yet whenever a well-written verse captures me, and whenever circumstance compels me to bravery, I am once again sitting in Mrs. McNeal’s classroom.

When history considers the virtues of public education in the 21st century, or when thought leaders of the day wrestle with ideas concerning best practices in the classroom, their work would be incomplete absent a nod to her.

To Mrs. McNeal, and the summer vacation that never ends, I hope for nothing but all the very best.

— Darrius Atkins, Chicago