On every article I have seen about what teachers do there are always many comments, mostly from other teachers. Those are the ones I love, they are uplifting and keep me going. And there are always people that feel the need to undermine what we do. There are tons of comments that go on and on about our vacations and how we have easy jobs.
Do you know why teachers speak out? Because no one speaks for us.
Reasons why teachers speak out:
1. The school boards are full of elected people who have never taught a day in their lives.
2. Our elected officials are cutting funding at the elementary, secondary, and college levels.
3. Nothing we do is good enough, though we work miracles. Yes, miracles. I have seen them myself.
4. We are supposed to make do with less.
5. The last raise we received, in the district I work in, was eight years ago. I know many of us have similar stories.
6. The school grading systems are always changing so even if we make progress no one sees it because they only see a letter grade.
7. Many of us are part of “evil” unions and of course, they are blamed for the world’s problems.
8. There is no consistency with curriculum.
9. There are more to schools than test scores.
10. We want better for our students.
We write and speak out because no one else will for us. We are on the front lines every day, working to better society and change the future. You don’t see the public advocating for teacher pay raises or our high school graduates running into education programs. We need speak out to keep the teachers we have, to support each other, and to help ourselves grow. To let other teachers know they are not alone and we understand each other if no one else does. We speak out and hope that maybe others will understand what we do and will maybe speak for us.
Why do you hear us and no one in other professions? Because we are academics. We know the pen is mightier than the sword. We have read about and studied histories that all changed because of written words. (The Bible, Crisis No. 1, The Declaration of Independence, “I Have A Dream Speech” sound familiar?)
We hope that one day our words will be read and change will come. Until then, we will write, we will speak, and we will march until someone hears us because we speak for many futures our own, our children’s, and society’s.
