• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts

The Educators Room logo

  • Start Here
    • Impact Statements: Teacher Expertise
    • Newsletter
  • Browse Topics
    • Content Strategies
      • Literacy
      • Mathematics
      • Social Studies
      • Educational Technology
      • ELL & ESOL
      • Fine Arts
      • Special Education
      • Popular Topics
        • Teacher Self-Care
        • Instructional Coach Files
        • Common Core
        • The Traveling Teacher
        • The Unemployed Teacher
        • The New Teacher Chronicles
        • Book Review
        • Grade Levels
          • Elementary (K-5)
          • Middle (6-8)
          • Adult
          • New Teacher Bootcamp
          • Hot Button Topics
            • Menu Item
              • Principals' Corner
              • Charter Schools
              • Confessions of a Teacher
              • Interviews
              • The State of Education
              • Stellar Educator of the Week
            • Menu
              • How to Fix Education
              • Featured
              • Ask a Teacher
              • Teacher Branding
              • Current Events
  • Podcasts
  • Courses
    • Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout- An 8 Week Course
    • Becoming An Educational Consultant
    • Teacher Branding 101:Teachers are The Experts
    • The Learning Academy
    • Books
    • Shirts
  • Education in Atlanta
  • Teacher Self-Care
  • The Coach's Academy
menu icon
go to homepage
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • Advertising
  • Write for Us
  • Job Board
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
    • Consulting
    • Advertising
  • Shop
    • Books
    • Shirts
×

November 26, 2014 Ask a Teacher

What Am I Thankful For? A Damn Good Public Education

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

About Jake Miller

Mr. Jake Miller is the 2016 National History Day Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year, a 2017 NEA Global Fellow to China, and a former candidate for county-wide office. Miller has written more than 500 articles, most of which have appeared on The Educator's Room. He's the opening contributor to TER's book When the Fire Is Gone. Learn more about Jake at www.MrJakeMiller.com
  • The Student-Teaching Model Is Outdated: Here's How We Can Do Better - September 15, 2021
  • Visualize: How Seeing What's Coming Changed My Teaching - August 16, 2021
  • 10 Lessons About Teaching from My Youngest Son - June 24, 2021
  • Ending the Epithet “Try-Hard” Once and for All in Classrooms - June 18, 2021
  • From STEM, Let's Pivot to the BRANCHES of the Humanities - May 25, 2021
  • Would Education Collapse If Teachers Stopped Working for Free? - May 20, 2021
  • 10 Ways to Teach Like Ted Lasso: Part II - April 21, 2021
  • 8 Tips So Your Substitute Plans Don't Suck - April 14, 2021
  • 10 Ways to Teach Like Ted Lasso: Part I - March 12, 2021
  • The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers: Habit 3 - First Things First - February 26, 2021

A DAMN Good PUBLIC education-2When people ask what one another are thankful for, there are a variety of great answers. Family, is notably and rightfully among the top answers. Many people are thankful for their friends who've helped give them guidance. Others are thankful for a home and a place to lie their head, or the food that's on their table. There are many things to be thankful for this holiday season - but the thing I'm most grateful for is a damn good education.

I grew up in an old coal town in Anthracite Pennsylvania, the area that provided the fuel to the steel furnaces in Bethlehem, Pittsburgh, and all along the Atlantic coast. However, when coal lost its luster and the jobs started to disappear, what remained behind was a bitter pill to swallow: high unemployment, roving families, low human capital, and an economic chop at the knees for the people there.

The downturns became very personal, too. My grandfathers, one a veteran of World War II and the other part of the labor force that helped supply them, were hammered by the downturn. So was my family as a whole. As the economic woe became leached into the family structure, the ties that bound became those that caused divides. I soon realized that I lived in troubled times.

Despite being at home being quite difficult, I always loved to be at school. It was a place to interact. It was a place to imagine. It was a place to challenge yourself. It was a place to have fun. It was a place to learn.

That's because, despite the hardships, the area put forth an effort build decent schools and hire even better teachers. It's difficult for me to think of a teacher who didn't have a profound impact on me, even as the wages were as stagnate for them as the area was for us all. These teachers changed lives, mine included. That's what drove me to the profession.

And I still live by an increasingly important maxim. I want the same for the future students of America as I wanted for myself: a damn good education.

So I entered college at a state school, funded by low-income grants and low-interest loans. I entered as a backcountry boy who thought he knew the world. I left a (hopefully) more refined one who learned that there is more to our complex society and structure than any four year degree could provide. But it did make me hungry to learn.

Education has provided a thirst for knowledge to not just memorize dates in a history book or study math sentences until they start to look like English ones, but to conjure up images of a future. One that my grandparents wanted for me. A damn good education, mind you.

I only hope that we preserve this for posterity, our future.. In fact I worry about it a bit too much.

As the superintendent at our schools says to me - "we're entering a period of educational Renaissance" - he sounds a bit too optimistic. I worry about students like me. Tough situations in tough neighborhoods - not just in rural Pennsylvania, but in every major city, suburb, and enclave throughout the world - prevent students from succeeding instead of serving as its launching pad. I also worry about their ability to pay for 4-year colleges out of their own pockets. Because they, too, deserve a damn good education to be thankful for.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Related posts:

Ready or Redshirt? When To Send Your Child To Kindergarten: An Educator's Perspective Education15 Things My 4-Year-Old Taught Me About Education What Is The Most Important Thing A Teacher Can Ever Do? The Hidden Emotional Labor of Teaching 
« 5 Things They Don't Tell You in College About Teaching
Inspirational Educator - Fran Warren, Founder & CEO of The Educator's Room »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

The Educator's Room was launched in 2012 to amplify the voice of educators. To date, we have over 45+ writers from around the world and boast over twelve million page views. Through articles, events, and social media we will advocate for honest dialogue with teachers about how to improve public education. This mission is especially important when reporting on education in our community; therefore, we commit our readers to integrity, accuracy, and independence in education reporting. To join our mailing list, click here.

What we do

At The Educator's Room, we focus on amplifying and honoring the voice of educators as experts in education. To date, we have over 40 staff writers/teachers from around the world.

Popular Posts

  • My Union Showed Up for Me, and I'll Never Forget It
  • Your Students Deserve a Diverse Classroom Library. Here's How to Set It Up.
  • You Don't Have to Watch the Tyre Nichols Video, But Be Ready to Talk About It
  • "Let's Make This Happen": Following Student Interests to Interest-Based Mentorships

Featured On

Buy Our Books/Courses

How to Leave Your Job in Education

Practicing Self-Care to Avoid Teacher Burnout

Using Your Teacher Expertise to Become an Educational Consultant

Check out our books on teaching and learning!

The Learning Academy

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Contact

  • Contact
  • Services
  • Media Kit
  • FAQ

 

Copyright © 2021 The Educator's Room.