I set this up a long time ago to be a place where I could speak my mind. That was during the Bush years. Now, it is time to speak my mind again. This time it is about the state of education in general and in California specifically. In the next few months I want to talk about the inaction from Sacramento, the inability of our Governor to govern, the bloat of LAUSD, the selling of our public education system, the myths of being a teacher, NCLB, and much much more.
     I am faced once again with the possibility of losing my job next year because there is no money to pay for teachers. I do not want to write a blog, but I am so frustrated by the incompetence of my legislators, the ignorance of the public concerning the realities of teaching in the modern world, the vehement level of debate and the general apathy of the electorate to understand issues that might take more than two sentences to understand that I feel obligated to let off steam somewhere instead of brining that stress into my classroom.
     So, let the essays begin. As stated in my blog mission above, the truth is rarely pure and can never be explained in one line news spins. You can disagree with my viewpoints, all I ask is that we keep open minds, check our facts, think, ponder, wonder, look at problems from multiple perspectives and try to bring tolerance, empathy, and shared solutions back into our political lives.
     Over the next few months, I invite teachers, parents, students, administrators to share their experiences this last year as class size increased and budgets were cut so the public can better understand what next year might be like if more increases and cuts continue. Email me your expaerinces and I will post them. Share this site with others. Let's begin to educate the public about the realities of our profession and the day to day lives of what it is like in the trenches of education and why we cannot abandon the next generation of students to political short sightedness.