You have to be saying, "Here she goes again, back on her soapbox, ready to rail against the government some more." You are right. I am. It is the most unfair time of year, the time of year when I question my participation in such a corrupt system, for a system that lines the pockets of curriculum and test companies with our tax dollars without any meaningful result is indeed corrupt.
Monday, I went with my friend Suzanne, a science teacher in my building, to the Capitol to rally for education. We were both there, proudly representing Elgin and our profession in general. The crowd was not as large or as vehement as last year, but I wasn't surprised. Teachers are cautious by nature. We don't like to rock the boat, we are often treading a fine line between things - the curriculum we believe in vs. the standards of the state, the rules of the class vs. the desires of a parent, what our boss expects vs what may be more realistic on any given day, what the state pays us vs. what we are worth. We are trying to please all the stake holders while remaining true to our ideals, and most of us have been on the wrong side of an administrator at least once, enough to be cautious. Last year we were stronger in number, louder in voice, but it got us no where. It got us the tax cuts we fought against, no changes in most things, and only a temporary suspension of the third grade reading test law. This year, though there were fewer of us, I for one was so proud to go. This year, I yelled louder, until my throat was raw, waving a sign with a gimpy arm, feeling the sunburn creep down my neck. I cheered when there was cheering to be done, and I might have even booed a thing or two.
I have been asking myself for months why are some of our legislators ever elected to begin with. Party Ticket voting is just asinine and it has to be the reason we have Sally Kern and Scooter Park along with so many others at the Capitol. And where did these people ever get the idea that their constituents, the people from their own districts, wanted to get rid of AP classes or take away a teacher's right to a payroll deduction? Were there town hall meetings when these men and women stood before their communities and asked for a show of hands of all people who didn't like AP history? There surely must have been, or they have no justification, no right to vote this way if they were, in truth, elected by the people for the people . . . Rep. Park's office didn't return a single phone call, a single email, though he claimed to be pro-education in November. I have spent the afternoon researching the voting record on every single education bill. This is my personal resolution: I will continue to pay closer attention to the way our officials vote in all matters, not just education. I will make my voice heard. If they do not listen, if they do not reply to emails, I will not sit passively by. I will actively campaign not just for their opponents, but I will actively campaign against them. I do not expect an elected official to agree with me or vote according to my will alone, but when the majority of Oklahomans speak out, the people's will should be done.
In truth, there are good men and women fighting for education at the Capitol, yet they do not get recognition for their work. Some thank you notes are on my to do list.
As I stood in front of the Capitol, flags snapping in the breeze, students singing the anthem, hundreds of people solemnly pledging their allegiance to these United States, what I really wished is that Bella and my students were with me. Tears in my eyes, I stood there humbled that I had the right to be there. In some other country or in some other time, this would have ended with police and arrests and perhaps death. I maybe furious with the poor quality of so many Oklahoma leaders, I may rail against the system, and I may resent the injustice and ineffectiveness of high stakes testing that decends on my classroom in exactly seven school days. Nonetheless, I don't take lightly the life and freedom and rights we have here. It is all the more reason that my child, my hundred some children by proxy, all of us should be passionate in our beliefs and demand the sort of leaders who will protect our right to express these beliefs, whether it be in the press, at a rally, in a blog, in a tweet. I do not know if the kids would have felt that moment of awe in my heart, but I like to think a few might have felt a spark.
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