Education, Politics, etc

Something most of you don't realize about me is that I am extremely outspoken in my real life about my political views. I don't put that in here, because quite frankly, it's nice not to have to defend my opinions to anyone else. Jam Daddy and I are polar opposites politically, but he's always been very respectful of my views, and expresses his own in a polite manner. The following rant is political. Read it or don't read it- I wrote it for myself. If you disagree with this, that is fine- that is YOUR opinion, and you are free to write your own blog and share it. You are welcome to tell me that you disagree, but do so with respect. This is, after all, MY blog, and one thing I love about being an American is that I'm free to express my opinions.

Ok, I've just broken one very important rule for those of us who work in public education...I figured up my salary as if I were being paid hourly. Boy, that puts things into perspective. I figured the 11 hours I'm at school a day, plus the (conservative) estimate of 10 hours on the weekend, plus the (again conservative estimate) of 20 hours a week I've been putting in so far this summer and assuming this will continue (actually, in August, I will be meeting with my team twice weekly, which will up the total), and not counting meetings...

I make $8.76 an hour.

Dear Mr. President,

I am an educator in a large, urban school district. I love my job and my students and I'm grateful and honored to have been given this opportunity.

The reason for this letter, sir, is that it has come to my attention that I actually make about the same per hour as the 17 year-old working at Taco Bell. Obviously, no one goes into teaching with the intention that they are going to make a lot of money. I simply felt that you should be aware of this fact. You see, I remember you promising to make education a priority, sir. I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but by paying me the same as someone at the drive-thru window, aren't you telling me that my services are valued on an equal level? The message (and correct me if I'm wrong), that I get from this is, while it's convenient for me to be there, you could easily fill my position if I were to leave.

Unfortunately, sir, this is also the message that my students are taking away from this. They used the computer skills (which I taught them) to access public records about the salaries of our district employees. They discovered that the head custodian makes almost $10,000 more than most of their teachers. They talked with him and discovered that in addition to not attending college, he did not graduate from high school (although it should be noted that he did get his GED at a later date). Well, sir, imagine the glee they felt in telling me that attending college was not necessary: in fact, many felt that high school was a waste of their time.

Sir, perhaps in some schools, this would not be a problem. In families where parents are highly educated, they make their child's education a priority. In my district, however, we do not have that luxury. Many of our parents struggle to put food on their tables. You see, most are unemployed or underemployed. I believe that you and I can agree that if these parents were better educated themselves, the situation would be better. Due to many different circumstances, this is not generally the case. I will not stand and point fingers and say that these problems are someone else's fault. Honestly, sir, I DON'T CARE WHOSE FAULT THEY ARE. I just want solutions.

I want you to stop focusing all of our time and money on death and destruction. I want you to start actually LISTENING to the UN. Just so you know, sir, America is NOT the only country with positive ideas to contribute. We can and we do make mistakes. We need to own up to our mistakes, apologize, and move on. We can not continue pumping money into outdated ideologies and one-dimensional world perspectives. Sir, we need to bring the young men and women who have risked everything HOME. When you've done that, sir, we can actually start focusing our attention and our money on other things. Things like social programs to help young people with babies become the parents that their children deserve. Or, how about programs to encourage young people to stay in school (studies have shown that when women are better educated, the unplanned pregnancy rate drops).

By raising the income level of those of us who work with these students, you are demonstrating to them that our services are valuable. You are telling them that we have something more important to offer them than a taco and a Pepsi.

Perhaps I am a bit naive, sir, but it seems to me that in the long run, by improving education in our country, you will be improving life in the world. ***Imagine if you will, thirty years from now, a young woman is being honored for helping solve the world's hunger problem. When speaking, she mentions that she came from an economically disadvantaged background, but that because education was valued, she stayed in school. Because her parents and her teachers were supportive, she worked to put herself through college. Because her peers had been told by their parents that having children as a teenager would limit choices, she did not get pregnant. Now, she was able to solve a crisis affecting the world. Maybe one of the children she saved from starvation would grow up to do great things also...

Life is a cycle, sir. Everything we put forth will return to us one day. Let the United States put forth a generation of educated, compassionate young people.

Thank you for your time,

Tsarina