This lioness is going to get on her soapbox, and tonight I have one burning question. When did teachers become public enemy #1??!! This question has been nagging me for a while and quite frankly it makes me really mad. God didn't bless me with the patience of a teacher to tolerate 30 some children in one room from 7:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. 5 days a week. Do you have that kind of patience? If you do then you are probably a teacher, because I know no other human who could do that. And I feel fairly confident in this next statement...teachers don't work for the awesome salary (can you detect the sarcasm??). According to the National Education Association, the average salary for a beginning teacher is 32,761. So, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that teachers truly get into this profession to change lives, help children, and educate. Once again I ask, when did teachers become public enemy #1? It seems that our state superintendent of public instruction, one Tony Bennett, believes that our teachers in Indiana are worthless. Especially those that are in the "public" school system. He belittles and degrades them, and bases their effectiveness on standardized tests. I don't know about you, but I stink at standardized testing. Give me a test about communication disorders and I'll rock it. Give me a test asking me to solve mathematical equations that I will never apply in daily life, I'll bomb it! That would be my first point in all of this. If you aren't a teacher, related to a teacher then you probably have no idea what kind of treatment they receive from Tony Bennett. I would strongly encourage you to vote for Glenda Ritz for state superintendent of public instruction. She is a teacher, which is who should be in charge of public instruction. Not someone who has never stepped foot into a classroom. If you want to read up on her here is the link
www.ritz4ed.com
It appears that we have become a society where we like to play the "blame game". It is always someone else's fault. Never ours! I urge you parents out there to start being accountable for your children's education and hold your children accountable. Teachers now a days do the best they can with what limited funds and resources they have. Classroom sizes nationwide are no longer 15-20 children per classroom. They are now 30-35 children per teacher, some even bigger. Because of budget cuts, aides in classrooms have been cut back to almost none. Compliments of Obamacare, teachers will no longer be able to write off expenses for their classrooms out of their pockets. Also compliments of Obamacare, some school's insurances have increased from $8 a paycheck to $80 a paycheck. Some schools have even quit carrying insurance simply because their corporation can longer afford it. I think it is time that parents step back and appreciate what teachers do and the stress they are under. Are there some bad apples in a school corporation...of course. There are always bad apples in any profession but nobody is perfect. Are you?? I firmly believe that YOU GET OUT OF EDUCATION WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT!!! If you don't study, don't try, aren't actively involved, then you aren't going to be that successful in school. If you put the time and effort into your education, then you will be successful. The National Center for Education Statistics states that 49.8 million children will attend public and secondary school in the United States. I graduated from public school and managed to graduate high school, college, and receive my masters (not to toot my own horn but to make a point that I'm not the most academically inclined, I have to work at it). So lets all stop playing the "blame game" and start being proactive in our children's education. Teachers are not the enemy. They are underpaid, under appreciated people who take all kinds of crap from everyone including their administrators.
Will my children run into teachers that they will struggle with? Absolutely. Did I? Absolutely. It is a life lesson that everyone needs to learn. In the real world it isn't all kumbaya and hold hands. It is a good life lesson for children to face adversity and realize they aren't always going to like co-workers, bosses, neighbors, etc. In conclusion, it is high time we start giving teachers their due. Appreciate the fact that they are there for the right reasons, and are occasionally cleaning up society's mess (the parents who choose not to be present in their child's life). And this is all coming from a speech-language pathologist, not a teacher.
