The Traveling Teacher: NEA's Rep. Assembly in Denver

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Author Jake Miller in Colorado

In my first article of the Traveling Teacher series, I shared the brotherly love experience of Philadelphia. My next stop this summer? The National Education Association’s Representative Assembly in the Mile High City -- Denver, Colorado.

This was my first year at the Representative Assembly (RA), and to describe it in one word, I’d say that I appreciate it. With nearly 8,000 delegates in attendance, it is the world’s largest democratic body. The RA is charged with setting policy, determining new business items, listening to speeches, and electing the executive committee of our union.

Beginning with our Pennsylvania state delegation at 7am, the deliberations linger on until 6 or 7pm in the evening, for 4 consecutive days. It is an immense, lengthy process that involves many man hours and taxes your attention span like nothing else. By Sunday, our last day, I was empathizing with 7^th grade students who trudged through a 3 consecutive days of my lectures. I’m just glad that day ended when it did (around 6:30pm) instead of past times I’ve heard – 1 or 2am.

With that said, I certainly admired the process. NEA President Dennis Van Roekel gave fair attention to each and every one of the more than 130 items on the agenda and the delegates’ concerns regarding them (you can view the items and their costs by clicking here). It was also interesting to watch the parliamentary procedure in action. I used to work for the Pennsylvania State Senate, so I imagine I enjoy it more than the average teacher.

I also came to quickly view the politics behind the RA. In fact, I participated in them on our last day. Pennsylvania, being one of the larger state delegations, employed a strategy to send half a dozen new business items to committee because our caucus both felt they were better served there and wanted to expedite the process.

A few things I plan on helping change in the process involve the following:

• I was saddened as to how limited the approach was to welcoming new delegates like myself. The average delegate is very seasoned and experienced in the process. With the changing face of education and newer players in it, I thought that there would be more open arms to delegates like me. I want to be part of that change.
• The lack of a Young Educators Caucus. I didn’t understand why there was a Zumba Caucus, but not for younger professionals.
• Spending time on business items that didn’t revolve around education. I certainly have my own political beliefs, as do many of these involved delegates; still, this is the place to set the tone for our students and teachers, not to take positions on items outside of education (like fracking, an educator’s oath, and debating the Washington Redskins name).
• Requiring an ID to vote – NEA objects to states requiring voter identification (and has publicly chided states, like mine, who have that adopted such requirements), but to vote for our officers, we need to display our IDs. Seems hypocritical to me, and something I plan on introducing at next year’s RA.

As for the city of Denver, I did find a bit of time to venture and enjoy the city. Contrary to what a few teachers at my school thought, I was not on vacation – in fact, we plugged away many more hours than I expected. But a few other delegates and I were able to find a few evenings, especially after state delegations in the days prior to the RA, to go explore.

Our first travels took us out of Denver into the Rocky Mountains. We rented a mega-SUV and loaded 6 of us to visit Pikes Peak. The only day we had the opportunity to visit was a rainy, overcast one, so we didn’t have much of an expectation. However, the 14,000 foot mountaintop was clear above the clouds and rain, and we were afforded such a spectacular view. Hopefully my photo justifies the radiant beauty of the view. The drive up - with thin roads and limited shoulder space and railing - was a bit tense, though.

Next we went to the Garden of the Gods National Park. Those beautiful Colorado red rocks certainly put on quite a display for us. It’s easy to see why so many Native American tribes visited this site as a religious retreat. I certainly was captivated.

Afterwards, we visited nearby Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, both beautiful towns nestled between the peaks. We really enjoyed being there; being a small-town guy myself, I felt more at home there than in the burgeoning metropolis of Denver.

That’s not to say that Denver didn’t have much to offer. We went to a Colorado Rockies game at Coors Field. Especially for being a 21 year old stadium, it was simply an amazing place to watch a game. The fireworks on July 3^rd were also among some of the best I’ve ever seen.

The downtown of Denver is much different than most east coast cities. Since this was my first travels west of the Ohio River (I know, I know, shame on me!), I saw how much more spread out our western cities are and how different (and more patient) my westward brothers and sisters are. This was most evident at the 16^th street pedestrian mall, where no traffic was admitted and everybody had access to an almost endless amount of shops, brew pubs, department stores, and restaurants from Civic Center Park (and the state capitol and city hall) all the way down to Coors Field.

While all the sites were downtown, our hotel was located about 20 minutes away in the new neighborhood of Stapleton. Previously home to Denver’s airport, this is now a blossoming area of plaza shopping and developments mixed into established neighborhoods and high-rise hotels. It was a unique experience to jog down a road that used to be a runway that was parked right between the old airport tower and a housing complex that was under construction.

In conclusion, I’d love to revisit Denver and experience much more of both the city and the surrounding Rocky Mountain beauty. I also am looking forward to returning to the Representative Assembly with a better ability to contribute.

Next stop for this traveling teacher? I'm flying back to the Mountain Time Zone to experience the Lewis & Clark trail in Montana.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]