Current Log: Volume 35, Issue 1, Fall 2021

In recent months it has been difficult to feel good about the world. So many people are suffering, and it’s easy to feel helpless in the midst of so many crises. I don’t need to enumerate them for you—I’m sure we all go over them in our heads constantly like a doom-scrolling laundry list.

I became a parent in February. So while I’m worrying about the world’s ongoing disasters, I’m also trying to mentally and physically juggle the barrage of duties that come with being a working mother. After seven months with a little one, our family has settled into a rhythm that rolls along without too many big bumps in the road. But the weight and seemingly endless small struggles of raising a child (during a pandemic) wear on me.

I find myself, when I’m nursing the baby to sleep, or gazing into my own bloodshot eyes in the mirror while I brush my teeth, dreaming of the future, when I’ll get to watch as my child learns about the world he lives in. He hasn’t seen much of it yet, but someday soon I’ll get to take him to the aquarium where I work and he’ll see a fish for the first time, and maybe a puffin and a sea jelly. I’ve seen those animals thousands of times over the decade I’ve worked there, but imagining him seeing such creatures for the very first time gives me goosebumps. I think about taking him to the beach and on hikes. I imagine us going to the visitor center at wilderness preserves and going whale watching.

And then someday in the near future, he’ll go to school. He’ll start writing his name and learning new songs and doing science projects in groups with his classmates. And he’ll have people like you along the way, teaching him about the world. That gives me hope.

Picturing you out there making plans for educating your future students or other learners makes me optimistic. In this inspirational montage of educators, you are brushing up on the literature, buying new supplies, staying up late to create a lesson plan, emailing colleagues to plan post-pandemic field experiences for your students, and strapping on masks as you head to the school, museum, or office to do your work. Someday someone like you will inspire my kid and help him understand life on our planet. I’m so grateful to you and I think you should get paid more. Seriously.

The Current editorial board welcomes your feedback on the journal and its content. To contact us, please send an email to current@marine-ed.org. To submit a paper for an upcoming issue, visit current-journal.com and click on the Start Submission button. I look forward to hearing from you.

Keep up the great work, and stay safe out there.

Sincerely,

Claire Atkinson
Editor