President's Corner
Happy New Year 2012! If you are a strong believer in the Mayan culture, then you will be counting the days to December 21st, and the end of civilization as we know it. Not to worry, the movie 2012 was just a movie. That’s what I told my grandson, when he questioned if the world were going to come to an end in December 2012? And shouldn’t we buy a jet plane in order to be able to escape? I didn’t want to destroy his fantasy that teachers don’t make enough money to buy jets. More important, I didn’t want him to live in fear of some devastating event that would wipe out the earth. It is a sorry state to live in fear of "what if?" Even today we are held captive in our plans for next year’s calendar, not by the Mayan culture, but from our elected state representatives and their "what if we cut this, or cut that, or what if we shorten the school year?" That certainly will solve all of our state’s financial problems and our educators and children will feel safe.
Every generation has experienced fears and anxieties. Growing up in the fifties and sixties, you were always on alert for an unsettling screeching siren that would sound-off unexpectedly and frighten school children as well as teachers. The first thought was, "is this for real, or practice?" Upon hearing the siren, students practiced dropping to the floor, squatting under desks with hands over heads. During those years the fear was that Russia would drop a nuclear bomb in the (Boeing) Tacoma-Seattle area. Since children believed everything that adults told them, we were comforted in knowing that we would be safe from the nuclear devastation, by crouching under those plastic desks.
With these scenarios in mind doesn’t that put the current economic doom and gloom into perspective, dealing with the current struggles within the Washington State Legislature? We’ve come a long way in education since the fifties and sixties. The Mayan civilization has little influence on our current calendar. Unfortunately, the state still holds the purse strings, and can influence the calendar. Positive news came this week when the Supreme Court upheld the News Lawsuit, saying that the state is not fulfilling it’s constitutional duty to "fully fund education" in the State of Washington. This decision is expected to heavily weigh on any legislative decision to cut days from the school year. They now have until 2018 to figure out how to fully fund basic education.
We need not be fearful, but we do need to be vocal. Legislators continue to say that they do not hear from educators! The general classroom teachers are not telling their stories. If you have a story to tell about your overcrowded classroom, then contact your representative and share your dilemma.
Remember, the movie, 2012, is just a movie, Russia is no longer the powerful threat it once was, but your overcrowded classroom is for real.
Working together we can make a difference.
Conni Van Hoose, President