FREEPORT – I am a teacher, and proud of my career. I am getting tired of being called names and having my profession being beaten up by politicians, while at the same time being accused of not caring about kids.

This behavior seems to have been on upswing since February 2004, when Rod Paige, former secretary of education for President George W. Bush called my professional union a “terrorist organization.” Which makes me — a terrorist. Me?

I am a homegrown Mainer whose family has been in Maine for generations, who graduated from a Maine high school and the University of Maine, and who received a master’s degree from the University of Southern Maine. I own a house in Maine, pay taxes in Maine and have been a classroom teacher in Maine for 25 years.

Why has it become popular to pick on teachers? For instance:

Eliot Cutler recently stated that my union is “standing in the schoolhouse door blocking education reform in Maine.” He accuses my colleagues and me of having an “unholy alliance” with Libby Mitchell. An “unholy alliance”?

I have taught in the same school district since 1986. I have children of former students in my classes nowadays.

I have sat on a variety of task forces at the Department of Education, received my National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification as a way to improve my teaching skills, volunteered in my community on committees and boards, and hold the office of vice-president of the Maine Education Association.

My only alliances are to what I believe is best for the students in my classroom, to my colleagues who have chosen teaching as a career, and to the future of Maine.

Paul LePage says, “Maine has great kids and great teachers, but the education system is handcuffed by large unions. They don’t care about anything except their power.”

He believes, “Past education reforms have tightened the grip of union bosses and bureaucrats instead of preparing students to compete in a global economy.”

He would like to do as the private academies have done and bring in more Asian kids to raise test scores. Huh?

Educational reform can’t be sa shortsighted set of changes pushed through by politicians who have little understanding of the work that is already being done.

If reform to education is to continue, we will need to keep working together with legislators, with community members, with our union, with school committees, and with our next governor.

Given the chance to add teachers’ voices to the decisions being made regarding what our students really need in our classrooms, we can continue to improve the school experience for Maine’s students.

Everyone needs to recognize that quality time spent with children in a facility that is jam packed with opportunities to use a variety of resources can improve students’ chances.

Cutting the money spent on schools, or allowing private corporations to skim public money for use in charter schools, will only harm our students.

And please, I spend a lot of time talking with my students about bullying. Name-calling, put-downs and teasing are not acceptable behaviors from the kids. They shouldn’t be acceptable from our leaders.

Please don’t call me names, don’t make assumptions about my work until you have spent a day, or better yet, a week, in my classroom, and don’t believe you know everything about my colleagues and me until you have done your homework.

 

Copy the Story Link