These Martin County teachers are heroes. Increasingly, they have to be | Gil Smart

When you judge the Martin County Teacher of the Year contest — as I did earlier this month — you meet some inspiring educators and hear some great stories.

You also hear some really heartbreaking tales — like this:

A boy was caught stealing grapes from the cafeteria at one Martin County elementary school. As kids do, his classmates pointed and sneered. "He stole! He stole!"

The teacher who told this story wanted to find out why the boy took the grapes. Turns out, she said, he had nothing to eat at home.

If he hadn't taken the grapes, there would have been no "dinner."

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So this teacher began sneaking things into the boy's backpack when he wasn't looking. Granola bars; juice boxes. Something nutritious, something for later for when he got there and the cupboard was bare.

It was, she said, a way for her to make a small difference.

Sounded like all the difference in the world to me.

This was my third year on the judging panel for the Teacher of the Year contest, sponsored by the Education Foundation of Martin County. All 23 candidates have been named Teacher of the Year at their respective schools; the countywide winner will be named at the annual bash Nov. 8.

As in the past, all the candidates were impressive. All of them, I'm convinced, make a difference in our kids' lives, big or small.

But the need for them to make a big difference is growing.

One teacher told of a 10-year-old student was perpetually exhausted. The child was bright, but when you're exhausted you can't learn. Turns out the child had to stay up late every night to watch her 3-year-old sister while her parents were at work.

"A lot of parenting," said the teacher, "is left to the children these days."

Another teacher told of a student living in a van who showed up to school filthy every day. The teacher arranged for him to arrive at school just a little early, so he could have his face washed.

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The opioid crisis has hit many children hard, teachers said. Parents are incarcerated. Parents just aren't around. And sometimes even when they are, they're not paying attention — or they're paying the wrong kind of attention.

"So many kids don't have a safe home to go home to," said one educator. "Sometimes the safest place for a child is in the classroom."

None of this is new; some kids have always faced poverty, hunger, parental indifference. But teacher after teacher said the scale of the need has just gone off the charts.

"Kids are completely different today," one veteran teacher said. "They come to school with so many more and different issues" than in the past.

This teacher's own son told her that of his entire group of friends, he was the only one living at home with both mom and dad.

Then there's the impact of technology.

"Kids are so addicted, they're staying up late, and it's interfering with learning," said an elementary school teacher.

"They're so used to that immediate gratification, and they're struggling in the classroom because they're not getting that," she continued.

Said another: "Kids need to move, sing and dance. I would encourage parents to have their kids put down the devices, to run and jump and play and fall and get up — it's so much better than sitting in front of a screen."

Sage advice. But those who need to heed it the most probably aren't even listening.

Indeed, more than in years past I came away from hearing these stories with the sense that too many parents in Martin County are failing their children.

Hey, I get it: Poverty imposes boundaries, language barriers can be difficult to overcome, addiction steals from both the addicts and his or her kids.

But when I heard teachers talk about going to a student's soccer game or gymnastics meet just so the student could see one friendly face, one person cheering them on — it struck me that our society now requires this of teachers.

Not formally, no. But the best teachers do these things because they know some of their students get no love or validation — or even food — at home. They know kids need these things, so they — the teachers, the schools, the state, the government — step in to provide where the parents can't or won't.

They're heroes.

And that's why, for all the fiscal challenges inherent in paying teachers more, I'm always, always in favor of paying teachers more.

Because once upon a time, we asked teachers to merely teach.

Now we're asking them to save the world.

Gil Smart is a TCPalm columnist and a member of the Editorial Board. His columns reflect his opinion. Readers may reach him at gil.smart@tcpalm.com, by phone at 772-223-4741 or via Twitter at @TCPalmGilSmart.