I am tired. I am as tired as anyone else who is sick of hearing about educational reform. I am tired of preaching to the choir. I am tired of trying to get new songsters to realize they are in danger. I am tired of trying to convince my well intentioned friends that the rich business people and the politicians do not know more than I do about the field of education. I am tired of hearing busy parents tell me how unfair they think the treatment of teachers is, but they don’t know what to do about it. I am tired of busy parents blaming teachers and agreeing with the politicians while ignoring the fact that their student has a role to play in his or her own education. I am tired of being tried in the media, being reviled by the media, being made to look downright stupid by the media and not once being given a platform by the media. I am tired. Here are some points to ponder as they relate to the widening topic of educational reform.  Teachers studied to be teachers and while they do benefit from mentoring and guidance they do not need expensive packaged programs that direct how they teach.  Teachers are people first, not insensitive automatons. They actually care about their students.  Teachers are not overpaid.  The Peter Principle is alive and well in education as it is in politics.  Parents do need to hold themselves accountable for their children’s education.  Students do need to do their homework.  Students do need to actually learn the lessons being taught and not just passively take in information. This requires independent study.  Teachers do need to realize that just presenting information is not teaching; truly a college educated person is not needed to tell students what it is they need to learn.  Teachers need to demand that students think, this is much more difficult than giving a lecture or assigning an assignment.  Parents need to allow teachers to demand that their students think.  Students need to demand that their teachers make them think.  Grades should not be that important as they reflect not what a student actually knows but only what the student has been able to demonstrate that he or she knows.  Test scores should be used to provide information on what was intended by the assessment, and not be the instrument that decides that anyone is a success or a failure. A test shows a moment in time, not a lifetime of learning or achievement.  A test score cannot define a student, a teacher, a school, a district, a community, a city or a state; none of these can be summed up by multiple choice questions.  A multiple choice question does not account for a difference of opinion nor provide the platform to engage in discourse to explain one’s rational for their opinion.  In the classroom, in education, being wrong should be okay. Learning only happens when mistakes are made. If I know it; I do it right. If I am learning it, I need to try. Trying means that mistakes will be made. With the way education is being approached, is it any wonder students just stop trying?  What happens when students stop trying? We all fail.  Let teachers teach.

New Year

I believe it is better to be rich than to be poor. I believe that those who are rich, and I mean really, really rich, don't care at all about the poor. I believe that we are being trampled on by leaders who grew up not wanting, not needing, and not being taught to care at all about the plight of so many. I believe that to be really, really rich means that you are completely out of touch with the reality of the majority of citizens who are in need of so very, very much. I believe that we are never going to be a country of equality because greed has become the ominous sound of love for those who would be in control and are in control. How did we get to this? How did we go from President George Washington who was a farmer who went back to his fields when his term was done, to career politicians who live to preside and preside to control? I don't know. But, I know it is better to be rich than to be poor. I know this because even though the rich are mean and ugly inside, and selfish, and godless, they decide. I believe that those of us who sit somewhere in the middle are going to continue to be steered toward the precipice of poverty and will indeed be struggling always. I believe that the American Dream is just that, a dream that can no longer be achieved. There surely was a time in this country of ours when those at the bottom could aspire to and climb their way to the top, but unfortunately those who have always been at the top have decided that there is no room, and they have crushed the dream and stomped on it like a burning cigarette that threatened to burn the tip of their precious little finger. So, I believe it is better to be rich than to be poor. I believe that those who are born into wealth will always be better readers, better students, get better jobs, have more opportunities, get into better colleges, have better self esteem, will be more stylish, will be the stars of the teams, will not be sick as often and when they are will get better care so they will also live longer. They will continue to be in control because they can afford to buy their seats at every level of government, because that is what government has become, a buy your seat at the table of "Yes I've arrived, what the hell do I do now?" If you are comfortable financially, with your personal relationships and or with you own self then it is easy to be complacent and think that you will continue to have a "nice life." You may think my belief that it is better to be rich than to be poor is either completely obvious or ridiculous, and either way, not how you want to greet the new year. Well I can't greet the new year with all that fabricated hope that we will all be better off somehow because well, it's a new year! I can't usher in 2014 with the idea the we as Americans are going to be okay because well, it's a new year! I believe it is better to be rich than to be poor. There are so many more poor, very poor, and utterly without, than there are those who are comfortable, and those who are well off, and those who are rich, and those who are very, very rich. And those who decide have decided not to try and change that. The one for sure thing I can say about what is in store for 2014 is that it is better to be rich than to be poor. Welcome 2014, and to end with a positive, may those who need be given. Rosemary