Every morning, my husband leaves our son at pre-school with a question: “What are you going to do today?”
His expected answer: “Do my best.”
What we know without saying, and sometimes without thinking, is that his best is better because of the teachers who surround him and his classmates.
Like so many parents, my first instinct as news broke last Friday of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School was to go find my children and hold them tight.
But I knew they were safe, and I knew they were in good hands.
As parents take it for granted every day, that the people with whom we entrust our children will care for them and guide them.
Like so many working parents, my husband and I have always relied on others to help care for our children during the day. The women who watch over them and teach them at daycare and at pre-school treat them as their own — they have bandaged booboos, taught them letters and numbers, played with them and prayed with them. We are blessed to have such excellent people guiding our boys.
As news of the horror of Sandy Hook took over on Friday, it didn’t take long for the stories of the heroes to emerge — the administrators and teachers who quite literally stood in front of the bullets to protect those dear children.
I am not surprised, because I know the women who have taught my children, from their early days to now; the teachers who helped guide my path; and the friends and family I know who work in classrooms every day.

Kerry Whipple Bean is publisher of The Brewton Standard. She can be reached at 867-4876 or by e-mail at kerry.bean@brewtonstandard.com.