Opening a New Plant 🌱

9/11/20 - Like most Americans, I still remember where I was on the morning of September 11th: in the fifth-grade classroom of Mr. Zimmerman.

I remember Mr. Zimmerman probably better than any other teacher I had in elementary school, and I don’t think it’s because of that morning. Or at least, not all because of that morning. I think it’s mostly because every day, his methods of incentivizing and motivating kids, were unlike anything I had experienced before. A big, gregarious man with a full beard and a deep voice, he spoke directly and plainly, in a way that — as far as it seemed to a kid like me — was no different from how he spoke to other adults, save for maybe a little extra encouragement. All the kids in class had jobs — like, real jobs, including bankers, who I remember got to use the computers in the back of the room — that contributed to a classroom-wide economy built on “Z Bucks.” Again, these were 10-year-olds. In hindsight, it seems likely that the entire economy was propped up by interventions from Mr. Z himself (our President, Supreme Court, and Federal Reserve all in one), but we definitely felt important and responsible for the upkeep of our little society at the time.

I can’t imagine having a better fifth-grade teacher on that morning than Mr. Z. I don’t remember any crying, I don’t remember any panic. I don’t remember the details. I just remember our teacher calmly telling a classroom full of kids that there had been an attack. Sometime not too long after, I was home.

Mr. Zimmerman’s approach to children, treating them with dignity and a genuine appreciation for their intellect, is on my mind as a new generation of teachers once again try to explain the inexplicable, try to put in context events that are unprecedented — this time over Zoom. As they were on the morning of 9/11, they are part-teacher, part-counselor, part-parent, part-social worker. That we are asking this of them every day, with no end in sight, is nearly unconscionable. Of the many things we take from COVID, hopefully the price we put on the value of teachers is among them. A healthier society starts with well-compensated educators. Start at $60k, and go up from there.

Pictured: Opening up 40+ pothos plants to bring some life into the new manufacturing facility.