Well said. Perhaps we need to consider what kind of world we will be leaving them as we define the legacy of our generation. Because that is how others will remember us for all time.

I like and voted for Obama, but neither he nor Arne Duncan are teachers and he should have chosen one to lead the Department of Education. Doctors run the AMA. Lawyers run the State Bar. Plumbers head the Plumbers Union. But why don’t teachers run education It makes me furious. Now they are going so far as to give schools principals who are not teachers. How can someone lead teachers who does not speak “educationese” and a second, equally important language called “special ed.” ( I can lose a regular teacher in a couple of sentences. What could I do to a principal who was not even a teacher?)

I guess because we are mostly women there is a strong undercurrent that we are incapable in high level positions. We still have not had a female president. But the thing is, Georgia had a governor a few years back who was a teacher. (Plus the State Superintendent, also a teacher, recently won a million dollars on Smarter than a 5th grader.) Even though he was a conservative, Zell Miller was first a teacher. Pay shot up and the schools improved. I don’t think there is a child in Georgia who goes to school in a raggedy building because the lottery is strictly for education and certain programs in education. Just as you would not go to a lawyer for a heart bypass, you don’t go to a businessman, community activist or lawyer for an education. I love what Obama is trying to do with health care, but he needs to find a teacher to head up the Department of Education.

I not only bought stuff for my kids, but I always kept a few extra packs of pencils and notebook paper for kids from other classes who did not have any. My church has a school supply drive for a transitional ministry for women coming out of prison who have children and kids who stay at the local battered women’s shelter. This year we were somewhat short because, like most congregations, ours has people whose incomes have dropped. So some of us have already started collecting supplies for next year.

The real tragedy is that there are kids who are living in environments that they have no control over, shelters, cars, crowded up with other families, with adults who party late at night. I once knew a high school boy who slept on a couch in the living room of a crack house. Eventually he quit school, found a job and got a room.

Perhaps the worst of all is families where mama is trying! She worked two minimum wage part time jobs, one in the morning, one in the evening and had 3 children, a preschooler, a pre-k and a 4th grader. The 4th grader could not read, write, or do math. She appeared to be learning disabled but not retarded, but no one had bothered to test her for special education. When school let out in the afternoon she brought the pre-k to tutoring with her. Afterward little Yolanda picked up the preschooler at HeadStart, took them home, ate the dinner mama had left and got them a bath and to bed. She was only 9. But there was no one to help her with her homework because Mama had to ride the bus and did not get home until 10PM. And there was no extended family to help because grandma was on drugs and her old man had molested Yolanda.

This is our future generation. These are the people who will work in our tourist industry, our nursing homes, and our restaurants. These are the poor children. Maybe if we treat and educate them better they can become teachers, nurses, bankers, electricians, plumbers and mechanics instead. Or at least they won’t be prison inmates and drug dealers and can hold a job at Walmart.

Elizabeth Bunker, a counselor at César Chávez Elementary School, where 85 percent of the almost 600 children live below poverty level, sees the results of the daily struggle. Many of the kids only eat when they are at school, she said. More than once she’s run down to Walmart to buy a child a decent set of clothes.

“We have three families that just had their electricity turned off,” Bunker said. “One dad had lost a job, one was injured on the job and the other — we’re not sure yet what happened. What scares us is we always find out about these things by accident. Suddenly a kid isn’t doing his homework. When you get him alone, it turns out he couldn’t do it because the electricity was turned off.”

Thought about that in the supermarket yesterday, when I put back my preferred brand of bread because it’s gone up again; 15 cent increase on my fave cold cereal (which had a shelf sticker bragging it’s price is “only” 2.95), etc., etc.
I’m now stretching the pricey cat food by mixing in a supermarket brand – no ill effects yet, and saves me 2/3 of the monthly cost. (why aren’t I switching entirely? Because I remember the difference in their health – and the vet bills – after switching from store food to pricey brand-much much less illness, for real).

Oh, yes, we live in the greatest country with the greatest food and medical care in the world./s
Starting to wonder about retiring to Mexico…although that has its downside, too.

While you may not see it now—you are making the difference to your students through your generosity and leadership. In my estimation, that’s one of the very best things we can teach our children as they will, consciously or not, imitate the role models that are offered to them. That is why what you do is so important, for without people like you, your students may never personally see a positive role model in their entire lives.