Rally in Raleigh

 Today, I am going to march in Raleigh for educators. When I was leaving NCCAT I was teary eyed watching the building from the ferry. This is a place that I feel that I can go as an educator and be treated as a professional. Something unfortunately my state is slowly taking away from us.

Public School Educators are being attacked across the nation and I am really confused about why? Have we not done enough for your students? I graduated from a public high school, got into every college and every grad school I applied to. I have a Master's degree. Am, I not a good example of the future of America?

I work with a population of students that many people would be challenged with. I love my students. They are challenging but they are wonderful students who deserve the world. And, our country is not giving them the opportunities that they deserve. My students have intellectual disabilities and are more than likely not going to go to a 4 year college yet every year they are required to take the ACT. It breaks my heart that my students know that they can't go to a 4 year college yet they have to take a test that determine whether or not they could go. This test takes 4-7 hours of my instructional time with my students. And, they have to take the test with students who are going to go to college. I can only imagine how they feel. 

You can imagine the heart ache that teachers across America have. They care about these students, they want to nurture them and treat them with the respect that they deserve and they know that they deserve better but yet there is a new wave of making profit off of our students. Making money off of testing our students till they are miserable is not right. We were not educated that way and neither should they. 

I am fearful of a nation moving to only charter and private schools. My students especially will fall through the cracks and will end up in gangs, jail, or dead. Public Education allows them the opportunity to learn skills that they can use. A choice.