I don't know...

I've never truly liked politics before. I've always been the one that walked away from the conversations that people were having regarding anything that had to do with politics. I never had a desire to be in those conversations because they always seem to leave with at least one person being frustrated and the other(s) feeling as if they conquered the world by throwing their political view at someone else. It was always less than desirable for me to picture myself having those conversations. But my day has come I guess. Why? Well because this is revolving around something that I hold close to my heart. A free, decent, public education for my students and my own two children. My fear is that this reality of public education in WI as we know it today is going to evaporate into thin air. It scares me. It scares the crap out of me.

I don't know. That has pretty much been the only three words I've said over the past two weeks. I just don't know. I don't know what to think. I don't really know what actions I should take. I don't know the right thing to say to my friends at work. I don't know what to say to my friends that see things differently than I do. I don't know how to get my mind to stop racing twenty four hours a day. I don't know what to do. I just want it over but I'm afraid that Governor Walker's proposal is just the beginning of a long slide downwards for public education in the state of Wisconsin. It's frustrating, sad, scary, overwhelming, discouraging, and very disheartening. But I still have hope. That is why I joined about 100,000 others at the capitol today. We all still have hope.

I am not going to get into my whole political view here because I don't need to. I'm a teacher, my husband is a teacher, I have two kids that will be in school in a few years, and I have 130 kids each year that I treat as my own. Do I believe what is happening is the right thing for our future? Definitely not.

It's been an interesting few weeks. Derek and I love our jobs. Now we just hope that we can keep our jobs. Below is something that a friend of mine posted on FB. It's too true to not post on my blog.

The public wants high quality education, as long as it doesn't cost too much.

The public wants a 21st century education, as long as teachers can do it with chalkboards, overhead projectors, and old textbooks.

The public wants a rigorous curriculum, as long as they're allowed to socially promote their kids regardless of whether the student passed courses or not.

The public wants to hold teachers accountable for outcomes, but doesn't want to hold students and parents accountable.

The public wants highly trained professionals teaching students, as long as the compensation for teachers remains as low as possible while still getting people in the classroom.

The public wants to cut the cost of education, as long as the schools don't cut sports, transportation, free-and-reduced-lunch, health services, counseling services, in-school-suspension, after school programs, or any other programs that currently take the place of parental responsibilities.

The public routinely says, "When I was a kid in school, we...." without having the slightest idea how much education has changed over time; more special needs students, more non-English speaking students, more discipline problems, more social promotion, more poverty, more divorce, more substance abuse and promiscuity, less parental involvement, less student involvement, less teacher support. The world has changed, but the public wants schools to operate as they did 10, 20, 30 years ago and yet meet the needs of students in the new millennium.

And now, teachers all over the state are receiving termination notices. Class sizes will increase, discipline problems will increase, programs will disappear, opportunities for kids will be lost, but the public will still expect highly trained educators to somehow produce a new generation of Nobel Prize winners.

And the public will blame the teachers when that doesn't happen.


A pic from today. We still have hope...all 100,000 of us that were there today.

A few pics from the newspaper this week...