My friend said to me, “I missed the President’s speech. What’d he say? Give me hope.”
Ok.
He talked a lot about jobs.
She said, “Jobs? Give me hope about schools!”
White House Photo
I reminded her that he gave us a down-payment on his promise to make education a priority by not only including jobs protection in the first stimulus package a year ago, but actually earmarking some of those jobs fund to protect school jobs - 300,000 teachers, school secretaries and custodians didn’t get pink slips because of those federal dollars that went right to schools.
She said, “Oh yeah. But…”
I told her the President was proposing a new jobs bill moving that could save many more education jobs. That she should could call her Senator and her member of Congress and tell them what happens when a teacher is laid off.
See, they don’t lay off the kids.
The kids keep showing up, but with fewer teachers and support staff to serve them, so class size goes up. And class size matters to the personal attention a teacher can give a student (We both know this, because we taught across from each other the year we each had 39 5th graders.)
She said, “I’ll call. But give me hope we’ll get rid of the stupid testing stuff.”
I told her the President said two things that gave me hope: (1) We’re going to do things that work; and (2) We’re going to inspire kids.
Norm Lono
“Sounds like pretty words,” she said. We’ve heard pretty words before. Words like No. Child. Left. Behind. Pretty words can lead to some pretty stupid stuff.”
She’s right. But we can jump on this. We can take the President at his word. He said we were going to stop doing things that don’t work. We’ve got the facts on our side. We’re spending all our time measuring all the wrong things and it hurts kids when they don’t get what they really need. I’ve got hope that we’ve got a real chance to do things smarter.
Smarter is good. But the second word he gave us: Inspire.
He said we were going to inspire our students. He had me at “inspire”. My kids inspire me. I owe it to them to return that gift. Let me inspire! That would turn the Kids Are Just Test Scores stupidity on its head.
She said, “Where I teach these days, my kids need so much. Half my class is learning English. Half of them depend on the school for breakfast and lunch. They come back after high school to say hi to me. If they finish high school. A lot of them drop out. A lot of them don’t see a reason to finish. What kind of hope can I give them?”
We’re going to change the stupid stuff in No Child Left Behind. We’re going to inspire them to find their talents and pursue their potential. We’re going to make their education all about them and their lives and not about some standardized test. And we’re going to make it possible for their families to send them to college.
We’re going to strengthen our community colleges. We’re going to make higher education affordable for the kids who need them the most. The President said all that.
She reminded me, “It’s not going to happen tomorrow.”
No. It’s not. But we’re going to start tomorrow. Today. We have the chance to make things better. We have the chance to be pounding at the table and make our voices heard. We have the chance to end the stupid stuff and start the smart stuff. We have the chance to inspire. And we have someone who will be standing with us.
“Ok,” she said. “If that’s what he said, I’m in.”
He said it. He’s given us hope for what could be. Now we’re going to make it what it should be.
lol you are a fool. This man is the master of deception and you swallow every word.
Lily — it’s good to see people who recognize that investing in education is the best way to improve our economy. My school district was just one of the many districts around the country that benefited from the stimulus bill, and that makes a lot of sense to me. The better educated students we produce today, the more good, long-term jobs we’ll create tomorrow. And, as you mentioned, community colleges are very important to producing an educated workforce. I was glad to hear Obama talk about that.
Hi Lily: I missed our President’s speech. Thanks for helping me capture some of the important pieces of his conversation around education.
Lily,
Thank you for your productive comments regarding what the President shared and what possibilities that gives all of us for holding him (and his staff) to his promises. We can all support you and NEA by writing our representatives and letting them know where we stand on these things. It’s not up to just the President. It’s up to all of us.
Diane
I agree with Mike, How can you believe anything that comes out of the master deceptors mouth. He’s done nothing but promise and lie for one year and what has he delivered–a big fat nothing. I work in the school system and I cant understand how some of these teachers are allowed to teach. They dont come out of school very bright, cant think out of the box and are ilogical. Give me the teachers of the 50’s and we would have students that learn. Instead, we are passing kids on who cant even read, write or do math. Just what the govenment wants, a bunch of dumb sheep who depend on the goverment for all their needs. Sound familiar? Wake up and smell the coffee. If we dont wake up soon we will all be equal—equally poor and living off the government. They are trying so hard to control every aspect of our lives and with uneducated people who are led like sheep to slaughter, we will be there soon.
Hi Lily, It is Sally Lord from Chico Service Center-CTA Retired Liaison. Just read the Nea article on Unleashing the Power of NEA Members. Thank you again for enouraging teachers to keep on keeping on. Right now in Chico Chico Unified School Dist is about to go to State Recievership or whatever it is called. I work 2 hrs per day at Parkview Elementary School in Chico as an enrichment teacher. I teach yoyo skills, beg. tennis skills, wood and crafts, and more. For the past two months I have been able to lead camp singing(rounds, two part songs, and more) during the gen. assembly after the homework and before the enrichments-the kids know about 10 songs now. I taught 39 years at CK Price Middle School in Orland, Ca a small town 20 miles west of ‘Chico. I am now having as much fun as I ever did-maybe more fun just teaching kids what they need to learn and having fun with them. My collegues that are actively teaching are feeling much like your friend in Utah about possibly quitting cause school just isnt like it used to be and should still be. I am sad and worried. I grew up in CA and had the best education ever which set the tone for the way I presented history and Pe curriculum to my students from 1968 until now but new teachers are not able to teach from their hearts any more…. that is scary. Please, please, keep trying to keep Public Education a place for All. Please, keep trying to talk to Obama and his “handlers” about not selling PUblic Education “down the river” The rich control so much of the political policy decisions in the Us, the remaining citizens are left to struggle and strive and not get what is rightfully theirs. I am saddened and I feel like our ship is sinking. Please, let me know how I can help change the seemingly doomed course for Public education if in fact that doomed course is even stoppable. Thank you for all you do to carry our education torch. I think you and some other Nea leaders are are only hope to save Public education. sally lord, Chico, Ca