By definition, an educator is someone who has a job as either a teacher or school administrator, and works in the educational field. A teacher, is someone whose job is to teach students on a certain subject, or group of subjects.

Now, to almost anyone, these sound like important jobs. The job of an instructor is unlike any other in the world, with the exception of a parent perhaps. Instructors are responsible for cultivating the minds of the world's future Steve Jobses, Nelson Mandelas, and Marie Curies. This concept has seemed to prove difficult for the American population to understand, especially in states like North Carolina.

North Carolina teachers, and other states like West Virginia and Arizona, are severely underpaid, undervalued, and under supported by state officials. These are issues that should be handled as quickly as possible, as teachers are being stretched to their absolute limits. It is because of this that I believe it is high time that importance of educators is made known to the public.

On your morning commute to your job, you pass construction workers on the highway who are building a new exit ramp. Sitting idly in your car, you go to turn on the radio created and installed by the manufacturer; your new favorite song comes on, a recent release from a popular artist. Then, finally, traffic starts to move again and you make it to your desk just in time for your boss to come forward with today's assignment.

Radios, cars, music, clothes, and jobs are just a few of the everyday things that we take for granted. There are people in developing countries who dream about one day having clean clothes or jobs to go to. Do you ever think about who created your car radio, gave you your job, or built the exit ramp on the highway? Do you ever think about how those people learned how to do create radios, build exit ramps, or climb up the company ladder to become your boss? They had to learn, they were taught how to do those things. They were once children in a classroom as well, writing their ABCs on penmanship paper in the second grade. Today, those children are lawyers, architects, musicians, and seamstresses.

Teachers are vastly undervalued, yet they hold (arguably) the most important jobs in the modern world. Shaping the minds of the country's newest generations is a heavy, stressful, and emotionally taxing career that is so easily taken for granted. Your child's teacher makes sure that your son or daughter is protected, enlightened, and happy for those few hours a day that you cannot be with them.

The same goes for college professors, who deal with the most anxious age group of all. College is primarily the time that young men and women are figuring out who they want to be and what they want to do. From a young age, we tell children that they can be anything they want to be when they grow up; we support ideas like being the president, becoming an astronaut, and curing the common cold. Where this country begins to falter is supporting the children that say, "I want to be a teacher." Why do we steer our brightest youth from a job in education? Well, because "it doesn't pay well," "teachers aren't respected anymore," and "any position worth having is already taken." By directing them away from a job that they think they'll enjoy, you are damaging the country just as much as the governments that are cutting funds for teacher pay, firing amazing instructors, and letting their school systems fall to the bottom of the education pile.

Many teachers in the South are leaving their schools to find better jobs elsewhere, and it is because of this that I believe it is important to share just how unique, patient, and important teachers are. Without them, we wouldn't have lawyers or doctors or anyone, really. Being a teacher is a job just as important as others; helping people learn is one of the most taxing jobs on the planet. But the world makes mistakes, letting teachers walk away because we won't do anything to give them a reason to stay. So let's work together to find one, or else our future generations will struggle to find out who they want to become.