We have become accustomed to the scene of great high school athletes behind a table with multiple college hats in front of them in order to announce where they plan to play the following year. Often these events are slickly produced and in some cases are broadcast on local or national news. Signing Day is a celebration of the accomplishments of great young athletes and an indication of how much importance we now place on college athletics and the young men and women who participate in them.

The Norwalk (IA) Community Schools have produced a number of great athletes in recent years and, like many schools, annually hold events to celebrate the signing of their young athletes to college scholarships. This year they decided to do something unique. The folks in Norwalk decided that they should celebrate the eight young men and women who have decided to become teachers from their graduation class of 2017.

On May 2nd the Norwalk Schools gathered these eight young future teachers and invited them to sign Letters of Intent in front of family, friends, and the media. It is great to see these outstanding young people being recognized as the superstars that they are. There are no athletic shoe endorsements in their futures, they won’t be performing in front of stadiums of adoring fans, and they certainly aren’t going to become rich and famous as a result of their decision to become teachers. Instead of fame and fortune these young people will influence the lives of our next generation of learners.

The eight young scholars who were celebrated in Norwalk are entering the teaching profession at a critical moment. Enrollment in teacher preparations has dropped by a third since 2009, the current teaching force is aging rapidly, and student enrollment will increase 5 percent by 2021. In addition, these future educators are entering a profession that is facing unprecedented challenges. Students are coming to our schools with higher rates of poverty than ever before and our federal and state legislators continue to shift dollars from our public schools to for-profit charter schools or voucher systems that have proven ineffective throughout the country. Public schools are being asked to do more than ever before with increasingly limited resources.

It isn’t an easy time to declare that you want to become a teacher, which is why it so important to celebrate these future leaders. They need to know that for all of the challenges that are facing teachers today, there is no profession with greater rewards. The opportunity to work with young people and watch them learn and grow is a privilege that teachers never take for granted.

It is important for us to celebrate these tremendous young people; we need to welcome them to the teaching profession with open arms. In a few short years they will open their classroom doors to students who will need them to feel supported, confident, and proud to call themselves teachers. They can’t just be celebrated now, but they need to be celebrated at each step on their journey to become the next superstars of the teaching profession.