Travis
Featherboards are a mainstay safety mechanism for the table saw, and other machines.
Some folks make them, which is easy enough, as I sometimes do, but I use the feather boards from Bow Products now. I started using them to hand feed on a shaper, then to hold stock against the fence while resawing on a bandsaw, and eventually to the table saw. Make them, or buy them, but use them.
Never pull a board through a table saw. That was how my shop teacher, many years ago, demonstrated kickback. I don't think even he was ready for the result. Made a heckuva impression on me at 12 years old, and put a hole through a chalkboard on the wall 20 feet away.
"The first thing you need to know, will likely be the last thing you learn." (Unknown)