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RITA CHEEK STILL ADVOCATING FOR KIDS story Joshua Baethge | photos Kathy Tran
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ita Cheek was a retired educator living a happy life in Plano. When the pandemic hit, she felt compelled to go back into teaching. Through online classes, she’s been able to reach kids, many of whom she felt desperately needed some extra attention. “I feel like with the whole pandemic experience, our children are the ones that have been hit the hardest,” she says. “I feel very passionately about being an advocate for the child and also for the arts.” Cheek began her career teaching art and English in public schools. She then spent several years working in private schools before eventually teaching lessons from home as she was raising her kids. As she started seeing how schools were handling online learning, she feared it wouldn’t work. In her opinion, being someone who cares is the only way for educators to help children find their passion and succeed. That’s hard to do when you have a class of more than 20 students online. Cheek said her heart went out to teachers who were putting in tremendous work toward what was seemingly an impossible task.
