Teaching: A Quarantine Song (Based on Dolly Parton's Jolene)
It's a struggle to grateful for anything right now, but there are a few things I am truly thankful for. Among them are the work being done by many amazing teachers and, of course, Dolly Parton. Yes Dolly is an icon beloved by proud rednecks in Alabama, transgender performers in California, and musicians in rural sub-Saharan Africa.
And Dolly has successfully helped in both education and in this pandemic helping her own home community in Tennessee learn to read and helping facilitate a vaccine. But if you needed no other reason to regard the amazingness that is Dolly, know that the inspiration for this song is a universal song of longing and pleading with those in power in situations where you have no control. It is likely for that reason that Nelson Mandella requested the song Jolene play as he existed the prison that had so long housed him. That is also why it seemed the appropriate song to co-opt for the challenges of educators now.
So while it is a bit over-dramatic and silly here in this version filmed by my 10 year-old son on a brief break from remote learning, it is also a sincere statement about how educators are committed to the calling of securing and enlightening future generations because their heart compels them to. You can find a fun copy of the lyrics on Buncee.
https://bit.ly/TeachingLyrics