A Teacher Sings To Her Students About Her Christmas Wish For Them — And Paints A Stark Picture About The Reality For Many Kids
The music teacher's video will bring tears to your eyes.
SeventyFour / Shutterstock Christmas is typically thought of as a time of celebration and joy, especially for children. Who doesn’t love seeing the sparkle in a child’s eyes as they tear open gifts from Santa and their loved ones?
But that's not the reality for every child. This is something that elementary school music teacher Risha Allen stated poignantly in a song she wrote and shared with her students before they left for winter break.
A North Dakota-based music teacher shared a simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking Christmas wish for her students in song.
A video of Allen’s song, which she originally posted on TikTok in December 2021, has garnered nearly 4 million views and 500,000 likes on the video-sharing app. She described the song as “every teacher’s heart.”
“I feel like my heart wrote this song for me,” she shared. “I woke up one morning before break last year, in my first year as an elementary teacher, and was singing it from a deep place within me. My teacher heart was, and still is, broken for all the kids who don’t want to go home for the holidays.”
In the song, Allen shared a common wish for her students: “When we send you off for Christmas break, we hope that you’ll get gifts.” She went on to sing that there’s actually one thing that “teachers really wish.”
In a tear-jerking chorus, Allen crooned to the students that she hopes they get everything from love and gentle voices to feelings of safety. “But if you don’t, just hold on and soon you’ll be back here,” she sang, “and we’ll make sure you get all that after New Year.”
Other teachers are sharing their touching reactions to Allen’s song.
On TikTok, where the video originated, users shared touching stories relating to Allen’s song. “School was my safe place when I was younger… Now I’m the teacher,” wrote one commenter. Another said, “Graduating from high school stole my safe space. I’m only now realizing that I wanna give that back to the universe, and be a teacher myself.”
Teacher Colleen Borgert went a step further and shared her reaction to Allen’s song on Instagram. In a video that now has over 180,000 likes, Borgert is seen first reacting with surprise to Allen’s words, then crying as they hit home for her.
Borgert shared a quote that she strives to remember as she goes about her job: “Students who are loved at home come to school to learn, and students who are not come to school to be loved.”
“I will continue to love and protect all my students,” she shared. “Love them through their triumphs and love them harder during trials. I will continue to protect them emotionally, as well as physically.”
She went on to give a shoutout to all of the teachers out there fighting tirelessly to better children’s lives. “Sending love [to] the vast majority of my peers who also dedicate their hearts, minds and bodies to our youth,” she wrote.
According to the CDC, “At least 1 in 7 children have experienced child abuse or neglect in the past year in the United States. This is likely an underestimate because many cases are unreported.”
These staggering statistics serve as a reminder that the reality Allen described in her song is very real for many children. In many cases, school serves as a safe haven for these children who do not feel safe or supported at home.
Allen and Borgert stand as reminders of the important work that teachers do. For children who have unsafe or emotionally unstable home environments, the love and support of a teacher can mean the world.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, pop culture, and human interest topics.