By Steve Snyder, Image: Screenshot from article, The 74, June 30, 2022

After two years of pandemic chaos, classroom disruptions and trauma, this spring has seen school communities across the country rally their way back to something approximating normal. At the center of these efforts are inspiring teachers, school staffers and neighborhood leaders who for years now have put their time and energy into guiding students, families and wider school communities through a time of unprecedented turbulence and uncertainty.

Here at The 74, we’re in awe of all these educators and mentors have done to shepherd schools and children through the worst waves of COVID. And we set out earlier this year in partnership with The Aspen Institute and Weave: The Social Fabric Project to shine our spotlight on these inspiring and generous weavers who serve as the glue for these classrooms and campuses.

We kicked off the series by sitting down with Weave Founder and New York Times Columnist David Brooks to talk about the state of the nation’s “social fabric” and why he approached Aspen about launching the project in 2018. (Read our in-depth interview here). Over the following two months, at The74Million.org/weavers, our contributors published dispatches from Hawaii to New York City, Atlanta, Portland and scores of stops in between.

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