Red For Ed

There is no fun picture for this post because, honestly, I couldn’t find one that I thought would accurately depict the message.

November 19, 2019.  Write this date down.  On this date, thousands of Indiana teachers will be traveling to Indianapolis to fight for public education.

Now, I have heard everything from, “Teacher’s are cry babies.” to, “Teachers are heroes fighting for our kids.”  I have also heard everything in between.  I want to just clear up why we are doing what we are doing.

First of all, many teachers (myself included) are using a personal day to go and participate.  We aren’t abandoning our students.  Many corporations have closed, have made e-learning days, have found subs, etc.  So, no, we aren’t leaving our kids in a lurch.  In fact, we are leaving them for the day to go fight for them.  Isn’t that what we want our teachers to do?  Care so much about their students that they are willing to face criticism and go fight for them?  I digress….

Secondly, please don’t call us cry babies.  We truly are fighting for what we know and feel is best for our students.  For my students.  For my own personal children.  We aren’t looking for sympathy or a hand out.  We are looking for productive, meaningful change.

It seems that everyone’s go to is, “Yeah, well, teachers get summers off.”  This isn’t true.  We don’t get paid for those summer months. We only get paid for the days we work. Now, many like myself, choose to take less pay per paycheck to get paid during the summer, but it is the money we have already earned.  This keeps household income the same each month.  We also do trainings, externships, classroom prep, etc. during the summer.  So, if you are reading this and you have said this, I kindly ask you to never say it again. It….isn’t….true.

On the 19th, one of the big items we are fighting is high stakes testing. No, teachers DO NOT, have a problem with being held accountable.  We SHOULD be held accountable. Our student’s lives are at stake here.  We have zero problems with being held accountable.  We do, however, have a problem with the means of doing this. ISTEP, and now ILEARN, is flawed.  Ask any educator anywhere.  All of our students are individual and different. So why should we try to force them to test the same?  Why do we mandate these tests that are essentially made to fail students and, ultimately, teachers.  These tests have done nothing but destroy teachers.  Many of us question what in the world we are doing because this one test makes us all feel like we are failures. Ask any teacher.  See what they say.  And look at the teacher retention rate. Teacher shortage?  Here is your main reason why.  Again, I digress.

Wages and high stakes testing will be a main focus on the 19th.  We are finally standing up as a collective group.  So, whatever you do, please consider supporting your local teachers and students.  Wear the color red that day.  Send a teacher an encouraging message.  Pray that the lawmakers will open their hearts, ears, and minds.

Here’s to fighting the good fight.  And to all of my fellow educators…I believe in you.

You are worth it.  Our students are worth it.  Let’s go!