It takes a special kind of person to be a teacher, and I don’t just say that because teaching is my own calling as well. As a whole, we are a group of people who knowingly choose a profession that will pay us less than our education and skills merit, because we’re more interested in making a difference than making money. We understand that teaching the present means reaching the future, and we want to ensure that future is a bright one. Every year, we collectively spend millions of dollars out of our own (decidedly shallow) pockets to supplement the meager budgets provided to supply our classrooms. We sacrifice time with our own families in order to plan lessons, grade assignments, write recommendations, organize and take trips, and whatever else we know will enrich our students’ educational experiences. All this, and more, we do out of the goodness of our hearts.
And all we ask in return is to be treated fairly, and to be able to use our knowledge and expertise to create the best possible conditions for teaching and learning. Yet despite doing so much, and asking comparatively little in return, we are repeatedly bullied and attacked by those who seek to advance their own personal, political and/or economic goals at our and our schools’ expense.
So this past Saturday, when I saw Kenneth Cole’s short-lived billboard, which falsely pitted “teachers’ rights vs. students’ rights” and asked the public where it stands on the question, I was so angry I could barely see straight. After two years of bruising work in a toxic school district, and another two spent battling the social, political and economic forces that created that toxicity, it was the slogan that broke this teacher-turned-activist’s figurative back.
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