I watch YouTube videos of segments of late-night talk shows from time to time. I’m pretty inconsistent. Earlier this year, I went a couple of months without watching them. I get bored with the repetition. The shows have staffs of professional writers and work hard to come up with material that is fresh, but they operate in a narrow range of humor. Political jokes seem to top the list. There are days when I’m simply tired of politics. I don’t intend to ignore politics entirely. I get my share of it from reading news stories. I listen to public radio and CBC. I check the headlines on several news sites. Sometimes, however, the news seems so heavy and troubling. Right now is a time when I am pulling back a bit. With Israel and Iran lobbing missiles at each other and the U.S. administration referring to Israel’s actions as what “we” have done, it seems like the world is teetering on the edge of massive warfare that will produce millions of innocent victims. China has been increasing shipments to Iran, and the US is supplying Israel. That seems like a dangerous recipe for violence to expand rapidly into global conflict.

So sometimes, I pull back and consume less news. An easy way to cut back is to simply not watch the clips from the late-night shows. I don’t watch all the shows, so clips from the monologues and skits are easy to miss.

However, I was recently charmed by a clip that was part of Jimmy Kimmel Live. The setup for a skit on the program was a video of Makenzie Gill, a kindergarten teacher at Ecole St. John Paul II School in Medicine Hat, Alberta, sitting in a chair with her students lined up behind her. They approached her and greeted her one by one with “Hi Miss Gill!” Without looking, she identified every student, including a pair of identical twins, by their voices. The clip charmed me because I know it wasn’t faked. I’ve known many teachers who have formed deep connections with their students. It is nearing the end of the school year in Alberta, which means Miss Gill has been working with the same nineteen students for nine months and has had time to get to know their personalities. She is, however, exceptional. It would be easy to make a mistake with nineteen students. Twins know they can occasionally fool people very close to them.

The skit that followed on the Jimmy Kimmel show was clumsy, and I didn’t think it was very interesting, but I went back to watch the kindergarten teacher identify her students a second time. The children were really enjoying the exercise. When Miss Gill got their name right, several exclaimed “Yes!” in an excited tone of voice. They have a very special relationship with their teacher. In a world with so many virtual experiences, so many threats to young people, and so much violence, it is heartwarming to witness the warmth of genuine human connection.

I celebrate Miss Gill and the thousands of other dedicated teachers who give of themselves to nurture children. As a parent and a grandparent, I am deeply aware of how much we need the help of other adults who care for the children we love. Every child in the world deserves teachers like Miss Gill. Sadly, too many children never get the opportunity to attend school. Their lives are interrupted by violence and disruption.

Too many children in our country are the victims of poverty. Too many do not have safe homes. Too many don’t get a chance to be with the same teacher for an entire school year because their families are forced to move. Dedicated teachers never get to know their students like Miss Gill because their attendance is so irregular. There are students in the elementary school attended by our grandchildren who missed more than a third of the days of the last school year. That’s more than a third of the opportunity to know and be known by their teachers. That’s more than a third of the chance to learn. They can’t keep up with their peers in math, reading, and writing.

Many are quick to blame parents for poor attendance. Parents' choices are a factor, but there are a lot of other causes of poor attendance. School districts, facing underfunding, negotiate time off for teachers in place of pay raises. That means that there are many partial school days. If the school is open one minute more than half of the day, the district can receive state funding for that day. The irregular schedule is a huge problem for parents working outside the home. Childcare is nearly impossible. Parents are often unavailable on half days, and having the child take the whole day off to be with relatives or friends becomes easier. The unpredictability of the school schedule contributes to lowered attendance rates.

There are plenty of other challenges for students and parents. In our county, ICE agents seized five parents last week alone. They are not criminals. A visa violation is a civil offense, not even a misdemeanor, but under the current administration, it can result in detention without due process. Families are torn apart. Individuals are deported, leaving their families behind. Raids and seizures have taken place at schools and have been witnessed by children.

In the U.S., approximately 1 in 5 school-aged children don’t have enough food for an active, healthy life. Food is a human right. Hungry children are not a choice; it is a policy failure. We have the resources to adequately feed all of the children in our country. Cutting food assistance programs to fund tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy is a moral failure.

I can list many other challenges faced by children in our society. But for a moment, I allowed myself to delight in the joy of one kindergarten teacher and her 19 students. Way to go, Miss Gill!