For the past 2 months now I have had to sit at home and reflect on a single moment in my career. Often times these moments in a person's life frequently just pass by without notice or reverence for the amount of change that they bring into your life. It is the ultimate "fork" in the road; to make a change or not; to lead your life a new direction or continue to follow the same path. In just a little more than 24 hours I will once again walk through the doors of my classroom and face the same challenges that I had met head on once before. The difference is how these past two months have changed and reshaped who I was to who I am now. So many things have drastically changed for me~through the hearings my integrity was challenged by people who have none.

Since I began as an educator over 16 years ago, my only mission was to make sure that my students and their families were able to learn all that was possible about a few things:

1)How to be kind to everyone, regardless of differences of any type.
2)Show compassion and remember that giving is the best way of receiving.
3)Understand that not all things learned are learned from books.
4)Most lessons that are learned are usually learned the hard way.
5)Being honest, trustworthy, kind, passionate, open and responsible truly ARE good
qualities to have and practice.
6)Knowing that everything happens in life for a reason, there are no accidents.
7)Knowing, trusting, believing in, and honoring yourself is important. Staying true to who
you are inside will be reflected in your outside.
8)Being positive through out all that you are will be reflected in all that you do in
this life and rewarded in all the next.
9)Learning to use such tools as: courtesy, manners, honesty, sharing, helping,
encouragement, courage, smiles, hand shakes, hugs, compassion, support, enabling and
genuine inspiration.
10)Be who you are, find your space, live each day like the gift it is and remember to
be thankful for all that you have, live by your own expectations and convictions not
by those held by others. Always work toward your dreams even if you have to rewrite
them as you change and grow.

Sadly, with the current situation in my district; when I walk back through those doors I will be jeopardizing my beliefs as an educator just so that I can survive. It is no longer my passion, just a means to an end. Knowing this has shaken me to the core of all that I am and has me questioning whether or not I should stay.

When I first began to study education, it was told to me that the reason for sending the children to public schools was to educate them to be productive members of a voting society. There was no real need for them to think or to solve issues on a global scale. It was okay for them to sit neatly into tightly packed rows and do as they were told. To learn what was given and recite it back when asked.

Fast forward to today's society; much of which revolves around some type of technology that develops as rapidly as an infants mind. As I look through the windows of most school settings, we are still forcing a square peg into a round hole. To what end?
The current political administration has just abruptly changed; it is my believe that the current structure of education must also change.

This is not just a classroom structural change, it is a complete overhaul of the entire system:

Educators must be raised to the same level of professionalism as those for doctors, lawyers, engineers et al. Educators should be the highest regarded position throughout the world. There isn't an educated person on this planet who didn't become who they are at this moment without the support of a teacher. Yet, on the scale of careers teaching has been regarded as the thing to do when you can't succeed at doing the thing you went to college to do in the first place. I should know as I am one of those such folks. It is the career path that the counselors in college recommend just before they switch you into liberal arts. How has this one career field been pushed down to the last choice of most? Honestly, it all comes down to one thing-the price tag....the pay check. Yeap, money!

The biggest and best difference between educators around the planet and all other professional careers that are regarded more highly is simply money.

The most successful educators and the most loved do not become so because they want the money. The pay these teachers receive is not in any currency it is in the success of their students. When they finally learn to spell all the words on their spelling test, to read their favorite story all by themselves, to tie their own shoes, or to finish their dissertation and get their degree. These "paychecks" have no monetary value yet mean everything to the teachers who receive them. These moments come frequently for some and rarely for others yet when they do come are like winning the biggest lottery jackpot ever.

Educators around this planet have a special gene within their DNA that allows them to over look the bad days as such and to see them as days to learn from and how to make things better in the next. They seldom think of themselves first and always of others.
To be an educator takes stamina greater than any of the world's finest athletes, more courage, and dedication than most of those serving in the armed forces.

Teachers of the past were strong women filled with plenty of courage and dedication. Their challenges were to teach basic tools: reading, writing, and math; sprinkled with geography. ALL their students knew why learning these things were important-all they had to do was go home at night and they would understand.

Teaching in today's world the lessons are no longer just the above basics. Our old world view has changed to encompass the world and all of it's peoples. When training those new people; who just happen to have that one special gene in their DNA; the way they are taught should reflect what is needed to be taught to those young people on the other side of the chalkboard. To go beyond the basics redefine how they are taught and structured to reflect how our current society works and functions. To hold accountable the students themselves as well as teaching them that their families are their support systems. To encourage a wider view of the learning role of education. To actually involve the student's future plans as it would be reflected in the lessons of the day.

How is this so difficult? Why does it always seem to come down to politics and money when in reality what education really comes down to is survival. My Dad used to always tell me-"No matter what happens to you in your life, as long as you have your education you can do anything you want in this world. You can lose many things over the course of your lifetime, you will never lose your education."

So my final word is to wake up everyday, get out and learn all that you can about as much and many things as you can so that whatever happens to you as you walk the path you are meant to walk you will be able to succeed knowing what you know is for you to keep always.

I have said my peace and counted to 3.....