Who Are They Kidding?

The recession is over! Yeah, can we tell the three teachers who found out yesterday they were losing their jobs? What about the 462,000 new applications for unemployment, do they know the recession is over? Would someone tell me the recession is over - or tell the credit card companies my recession is ongoing - maybe then they will stop calling me! The failure to see the big picture here is scary - we cram 32 children into a classroom, ask a teacher to meet the needs of each child, then we ream the teachers because the test scores are falling, we ream the students for acting out...the big picture? That student we lose in the 5th grade, due to overcrowding and lack of resources - that student may live till he/she is 100 - and the rest of their lives they will be affected by the issues created in 5th grade - it is true! Think about your own life. Think about how your teachers and your schooloing affected you - positively or negatively - I went to Catholic Elementary School - I bear those scars to this day! My phobisa of snakes comes from second grade. Being locked in an art closet - I remember that vividly - and in 1st grade standing in the corner because I had wet my pants - well that I remember. I remember when my favorite 7th grade teacher asked me to stay after class - then without ever looking at me she asked: "Your grades are dropping is everything OK?" With the greatest weight about to be lifted off my chest I replied; "Yes." "Well" she answered, "Get it together or you are going to fail." Never once looking at me. So the emotional, physical and sexual abuse I was enduring continued. Back then life was don't ask don't tell - Here was my chance because an adult asked - but she did not want me to tell! Did that affect me? Hell yes! When my abuse might have ended in 7th grade - it didn't! So I endured more. Too often teachers are perceived as those who can't do anything else, long summer vacations, short work days - Sure, I continue to offer my job to anyone who wants to give it a shot. Yesterday two students came to my room, in the morning before school - they talked about the guns they had in their houses and debated who had shot the neighbors rabbit. One young man slept until lunch time - I mean he slept out cold, could not wake him up - he was really sick, but parents send their sick children to school because they don't have anyplace else to send them. Guess who is really sick today - ME! Oh yeah, the recession is over. Tomorrow is norm day! In our world this means they count all the students enrolled in our school - then depending on the numbers they cut even more teachers. 3 cut yesterday - tomorrow? Who knows? What is cut will not be returned. They won't increase our pay once we have accepted them cutting it. You must accept a pay cut to save the jobs of your peers - so we did, then they cut those jobs anyway! Fooled us didn't they? The purpose is clear, however what I don't think peop;e are seeing are the faces of all these children. All these children who come to school to learn, to find love, to develop into who they are going to be - What is not seen is the bond between teacher and child - the impact teachers have on children and the impact these cuts, this loss of humanity, will have on these children. God help us, the price we pay is far greater than the pennies they save.