Not an Ordinary Day

​Today is not an ordinary day. Today I hug and kiss my children grateful to have them, while my heart breaks for the families that could no longer do this. Today, I drive to schools thinking about how children arrive at their schools like any other day, while Texas children cannot feel the same way. Today, I am heartbroken, scared, and angry.

sIn 2012, I wrote for those who experienced Sandy Hook hoping to never feel that way again. In 2018, I had to witness how my county was affected directly by another similar event only 30 minutes from my house and closer to home than anyone could wish. Today, I relive the emotions all over again after what just happened in Texas. How many more incidents have to occur? How many more innocent lives have to be lost before anyone reacts? Enough is enough! No child should ever have to live through this. No child should have to attend school and be taught procedures for an active shooting. I will not address my views on gun control, but I will voice my passion about education. It is time to make education a priority in this country. It is time to invest in education and provide the tools and resources needed for these children who grow up and go out into society with decisions that could change many lives.

When will education become a priority? Despite many beliefs, teachers and schools have the power to impact futures. But education has become impossible for many factors to be best we could be. I speak to you as a special education teacher and as a district staff who oversees various schools. We need to make education a priority.

It is impossible for special education teachers to address and implement strategies with fidelity when classroom ratios are high, when administration is not educated or trained to understand the Special Education world, when budgets are restricted to purchase what is needed, when teachers are not trained to learn how to address these students, when support is not followed by accountability, when we lose teachers because they do not get paid enough.

It is impossible for teachers to address all the social emotional needs in big ratio classes, to provide interventions when you have not been trained, to identify when help is needs or to want to come work when they are exhausted, overworked, and underpaid.

It is impossible to identify disabilities if we do not have enough psychologist to evaluate or to meet social emotional needs if we do not have enough counselors. It is impossible to run systematic RTI processes and provide interventions while understaffed. How can we help children be successful and make a true impact?

It is difficult to work in education when everyone has become mad hatters and must complete up to 10 jobs. It impossible to have so many responsibilities while being paid for only one and be expected to be a master of each task. Who wants to work in a job that you have work after work? Work never ends after hours for educators.

Let’s talk about training. Teachers are being asked to attend trainings after hours and without pay or cannot attend training for lack of substitutes. Who wants to do that? Not many people. Without training, we cannot learn the needed information to be successful and experts in our fields. You cannot become a doctor without the medical knowledge. You can not be an electrician and fix wires without learning about it. You cannot be a mechanic without learning about motors. But we expect teachers to have all the answers, know how implement strategies/curriculums, and run classrooms without proper training. You truly do not get this information through college.
 
Our education system is falling apart. You CANNOT be anyone in the world or in any job without ever going through school or learning from a TEACHER. When will we make education a priority to help all the students in need and give them the right interventions?

We need to start making changes to prevent what happened to repeat. Enough is enough.