Abbott Elementary – Season 2 Episode 20 “Educator of the Year” Recap & Review

Educator of the Year

In Abbott Elementary Season 2 Episode 20, Chief Education Officer from the Philadelphia Board of Education Elizabeth Washington arrives with Channel 6 to award Gregory Eddie as educator of the year.

The teachers know the award isn’t merit-based; Barbara thinks giving it to Gregory is meant to encourage other young Black men to pursue careers as teachers. Still, Gregory feels uncomfortable with the attention.

Elizabeth announces that Melissa will be presenting the award to him–so they can present a “diverse POV” at the ceremony. So, Melissa grills Gregory on things she should say about him, but he can’t come up with ways in which he’s excelled as an educator.

Janine doesn’t feel like the best teacher right now either. Since her student Deshaun has been acting out all year, she meets with his mom, Cassandra, to try to brainstorm ways to help him. But Cassandra berates her for being a bad teacher and not figuring it out on her own.

Gregory overhears Janine crying after the meeting, so he takes her to Barbara. Janine admits to her she might be a terrible teacher. She’s done everything she can to help Deshaun, but is still failing him. But Barbara lets her in a secret: She has had her share of criticisms too. Some issues are too difficult for even her to solve. But if she and Janine don’t give up, they’re not failures.

After seeing everything Janine has had to deal with, Gregory confesses to Melissa he doesn’t deserve the award. Melissa agrees: he doesn’t deserve it–but he will. He’s improved week after week. Someday he’ll grow into deserving it, so he should accept the award now.

Ashley Garcia makes a reappearance at the ceremony to accept an award for teacher’s aide of the year, despite being the absolute worst (and yet the most fun) at her job.

Melissa then introduces Gregory, who tells everyone he can’t accept the award because he’s still learning. He shines the light instead on the deserving teachers at Abbott. All of them are doing their best, showing up every day. So he dedicates his award to all the teachers he works with.

The Episode Review

It’s so funny to see June Diane Raphael pick up a very similar role as she plays in Everything’s Trash–her characters are still pushing a cringeworthy brand of performative inclusivity. Hers and of course Keyla Monterroso Mejia as Ashley, were really fun cameos.

Ultimately, this was the perfect episode to spotlight where Gregory is in his life. He’s evidently grown a lot from the unenthused substitute of season 1, but there’s a lot more progress to be made. I loved his arc of getting to a point where he accepts his shortcomings and still celebrates his incredible progress. We’ll see him as a school principal yet, I think.