Mary-Elizabeth W.

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

@mitchgoldich These are great - thank you! Just one thing - the figure skating team event actually starts off with ice dance tomorrow morning.

[Travis Akers 🇺🇸 @travisakers]

A message from a Kindergarten teacher:

After forty years in the classroom, my career ended with one small sentence from a six-year-old:

“My dad says people like you don’t matter anymore.”

No sneer. No malice. Just quiet honesty — the kind that cuts deeper because it’s innocent. He blinked, then added, “You don’t even have a TikTok.”

My name is Mrs. Clara Holt, and for four decades, I taught kindergarten in a small Denver suburb. Today, I stacked the last box on my desk and locked the door behind me.

When I started teaching in the early 1980s, it felt like a promise — a shared belief that what we did mattered. We weren’t rich, but we were valued. Parents brought warm cookies to parent nights. Kids gave you handmade cards with hearts that didn’t quite line up. Watching a child sound out their first sentence felt like magic.

But that world slowly slipped away. The job I once knew has been replaced by exhaustion, red tape, and a kind of loneliness I can’t quite describe.

My evenings used to be filled with construction paper, glitter, and glue sticks. Now they’re spent filling out digital reports to protect myself from angry emails or lawsuits. I’ve been yelled at by parents in front of twenty-five children — one filming me with his phone while I tried to calm another child mid-meltdown.

And the kids… they’ve changed too. Not by choice.

They arrive tired, anxious, overstimulated. Their tiny fingers know how to swipe a screen before they can hold a crayon. Some can’t make eye contact or wait in line. We’re expected to fix all of it — to patch the gaps, heal the trauma, teach the curriculum, and document every move — in six hours a day, with resources that barely fill a drawer.

The little reading corner I once built, full of soft beanbags and paper stars, was replaced by data charts and “learning metrics.” A young principal once told me, “Clara, maybe you’re too nurturing. The district wants measurable results.”

As if kindness were a weakness.

Still, I stayed. Because of the small, holy moments that no spreadsheet could measure —
a whisper of, “You remind me of my grandma.”
a shaky note that read, “I feel safe here.”
a quiet boy finally meeting my eyes and saying, “I read the whole page.”

Those tiny sparks were my reason to keep showing up.

But this last year broke something in me.

The aggression grew sharper. The laughter in the staff room turned to silence. The light went out of so many eyes. I watched brilliant teachers — my friends — vanish under the weight of burnout, their joy replaced by survival.

I felt myself fading too, like chalk on a board that’s been wiped one too many times.

So today, I began my goodbye. I pulled faded art off the walls and tucked thirty years of handmade cards into a single box. In the back of a drawer, I found a letter from a student from 1998:

“Thank you for loving me when I was hard to love.”

I sat on the floor and cried.

No party. No applause. Just a handshake from a young principal who called me “Ma’am” while checking his notifications.

I left my rocking chair behind, and my sticker box too. What I carried with me were the memories — the faces of hundreds of children who once trusted me enough to reach out their hands and learn. That can’t be uploaded. It can’t be measured. It can’t be replaced.

I miss when teachers were partners, not targets. When parents and educators worked side by side, not in opposition. When schools cared more about wonder than numbers.

So if you know a teacher — any teacher — thank them. Not with a mug or a gift card, but with your words. With your respect. With your understanding that behind every test score is a heart that cared enough to try.

Because in a world that often overlooks them, teachers are the ones who never forget our children.

[Stat Boy Steven 🇳🇱🇮🇪 @StatBoy_Steven]

This might be a millennial take but...

Bring back hard tickets. This whole digital ticket bullshit really ruins the experience.

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

@jamiebgolden YES!!! Thank you - I thought I was the only one who thought that!

[Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter]

Steve Gleason accepting the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the 2024 ESPYS.

What a moment, what a man, and what a message:

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

@AfterLeWhistle Is the mystery box investigation still ongoing or did CSI ATW close the case?

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

Wow. If this makes Taylor Swift a bad role model, I can’t believe my friends even allow me around their children.

[Shannon Watts @shannonrwatts]

A thread of the misogynistic and bizarre “arguments” made by @ghlionn in @newsweek about why Taylor Swift isn’t fit to be a role model for girls and women. Obviously starting with the crime that at age 34, she “remains unmarried and childless.”

[☔ @Whotfismick]

my brain at 3am:

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

@BR_OpenIce @HLundqvist Let’s be honest - that probably also happened during the dad’s trip.

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

“Just show up and be flexible.”
- R. Dennis Allen

[Jessica Ellis @baddestmamajama]

I kind of miss the 90s where when someone would blow something up, nobody had to check the bombers political ideology before saying it was not good to blow things up.

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

#WorldSynchro

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

@RaisingSelf You have the coolest kid and the best family!! At a time when it seems like everyone is yelling at each other, your videos gave me the biggest smile - thank you for sharing!!

[Goodable @Goodable]

A young deaf boy went to Disneyland but was sad because he wouldn't be able to speak with the Disney characters.

When Mickey and Minnie saw he was deaf, they walked over — and gave him the best surprise ever.

Everyone belongs.

🥹

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

Yup, the ice is definitely slippery.

[Seattle Kraken @SeattleKraken]

tired: mic’d up hockey players

wired: Jr Squid player Brehan mic’d up! 🔋

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

@YukiSNYC @LaurenCRossi She is the best!!

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

Might be my favorite re-enactment!

[NBC Olympics & Paralympics @NBCOlympics]

Down, but not out, @TeamUSA.

Take it away @elmo! #WinterOlympics #ELMOtivation

[New York Times Opinion @nytopinion]

“Crowing over someone’s suffering or demise is as far from a moral act as one can imagine,” writes @JamesMartinSJ, a Jesuit priest. “It’s cruel.” https://t.co/TA8yFE4BEX

[Mary-Elizabeth W. @marye81]

@MEHarty @Delta Good luck!!!! And don’t worry - I’m sure it made it!!