TEACH YOUR CHILDREN.

• Author: Kinney, Ben
• Position: UPFRONT

One of the sections you'll be reading through this month is our Business and Education Round Table. We like to bring business leaders and, whenever possible, educators together to discuss ways they partner in the classroom to help students prepare for the workforce of the next generation. It's always a great discussion, and I'm amazed at some of the ways they collaborate. Whether it's an apprenticeship program at Siemens Energy or providing laptops to students along with training from Lenovo, there are a lot of great things happening around the state. Teachers need this more than ever, believe me.

I come from a family of educators. My mom was a chemistry and physics teacher at, what seemed like, most of the high schools in Charlotte before she retired. (She was teaching chemistry at my high school when I was there ... weird.) I actually went through student teaching in college before deciding to go into sales and publishing--I couldn't get used to the early hours. My sister is a kindergarten teacher at a Title 1 school in Charlotte. She has a tough job. Most of her students don't speak English as a first language and come from a variety of backgrounds. She has some war stories to tell, for sure. Dealing with the pandemic, language barriers and other issues are daily challenges she faces head-on.

I always wonder why she does...