At the White House, President Obama honors National Teacher of the Year
President Obama on Tuesday afternoon spoke about the importance of education at the White House as he honored Jahana Hayes, this year's National Teacher of the Year.
"It's a good day with all of you guys here in Washington to say thank you for the extraordinary work that teachers do across the country," he said to Hayes and the other teachers present at the ceremony.
"It's also a pretty good day for substitute teachers," Mr. Obama quipped, adding: "We've got a lot of folks playing hooky today. This is a school day!"
Hayes, a teacher at John F. Kennedy High School in Waterbury, Ct., became pregnant as a teenager and considered dropping out of school at the time.
"But her teachers saw something," Mr. Obama said. "They saw something in her and they gave her an even greater challenge and that was to dream bigger and to imagine a better life."
Hayes acknowledged in her remarks that her own life challenges have impacted the way she interacts with students and understands their problems. She also said schools have trouble recruiting and retaining minority teachers, something that must be changed.
"Like every teacher, I started as a student--and like many students around the country, I know what it feels like it have a dream and exist in an environment where nothing is expected to thrive," Hayes said. "I know what it feels like to struggle to find sunlight and constantly be met with concrete barriers.
"I see myself in every one of those students, and I carry my own experiences as a reminder that as a teacher I have to be better," she continued.
To celebrate the day, Mr. Obama also tweeted out a photo honoring his own fifth grade teacher:
