Yesterday House Bill One was passed. For those of you that are unfamiliar, this is the bill that is supposed to help balance the budget for Texas. The bill calls for the budget of Texas to be $164.5 billion. That is a $23 billion dollar reduction in the spending from this year, and of that $8 BILLION of it is being cut from education. Our state representatives are not taking responsibility for it. They feel that it is the senate's job to fix it. They think cutting $8 BILLION dollars from education is an "acceptable loss", but really it is "a slap in the face to Texas children" as the Texas State Teachers Association President Rita Haecker said.
One teacher asked me, after expressing her own frustrations with the education system, a simple question. "You have a lot of grand ideas about accountability, but what do you think has to be done, what can you do as one person?" This resonated with me; it basically was saying talk is cheap, and it is. My response was that we have a responsibility as teachers to maintain the ideals that we put forth. I have said that the most important thing is consistency in teaching, but isn't it also important in life? The only thing that I can do is to promote my ideals, to stand up and let those ideas be heard by the 100 students that I teach per year and the few that read this blog. I cannot do it alone. I told her that I will stand up and write, and help to prepare students the best way I can until I am not allowed to anymore. The scary part about this is even though I received my contract for next year, 2011-20112 may be my last year to teach. I will go down fighting, trying to give them the best education that I can and to prepare them for the world that exists outside the walls of their high school.
We all know that the world is changing. I keep talking about how education needs to be dynamic. The true leaders of our proffession are dynamic. Ron Clark and Harry Wong are great examples. The problem is that beuracracy naturally tries to remain a static system. Keep the status quo. If we add more bureaucracy we limit ourselves even further.
When I got laid off from the petrochemical industry in 2009 I was devistated. I had been immersed in that world and did not know what I was going to do next. Jobs that I applied for were snatched up before my very eyes. Oppertunities seemed to disapear. Then I went to a place that helps find jobs for those having trouble, a non-profit that we have here in Houston. The first week I attended a lecture by a guy that had been in the same boat I had been in. His name was Charlie, and his words effected me. Basically, he said that we build ourselves a box. We create for ourselves a box with sides that limit our vision. The first side is money; "I have to make this much". The second side is retirement; "I have to save and have a good company to make sure at 65 I can start having fun". The third side is experience; "I only know about so much, so I am not going to branch out". The last side is fear; "Anything new is scary and to be avoided". He said that you have to break out of this box. I broke out of it and went to work for something that I truely believe in and enjoy. As a society we have created a box for education. We have lost ourselves. Instead of induvidualism that we use to pride ourselves in we have created a cookie cutter for out kids. We have an oppertunity now to break out of this mold; to get rid of the box.
We must take what we have learned and make it better. Society has a chance now to change it. We cannot back down or surrender ourselves. We must be steadfast in our approach. I told my friend that we have a job as educators, even in the system that we live, to be "beacons of light in the darkness." We must stay with it, but we also have a duty to change it. If our societal goal is not the betterment of ourselves then we are truly lost.
I believe in the system, maybe it is because I am young and not as cynical or jaded as others. I believe in the system because I think that out there somewhere is a representative that will stand up and say, "We can fix this." Perry believes that House Bill One is a step in the right direction. He is right about being fiscally responsible, we should not move beyond our means. He is wrong in thinking that other programs are more important than education. Where would you be without it?
Until Tomorrow,
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward."
-- Vernon Law
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