Excuse Me?

I hereby declare this a rant.

This is not a political post. This is a WHAT IS HAPPENING post. This has zero to do if you voted for Hillary, Bernie, or Donald. I am just feeling a bit down about my profession :-/ .

Things I've seen today.

"Hey teachers - the gravy boat is now OVER."

"The unions are the ones that pushed back against DeVos being nominated. They need to go."

"DeVos brings change. Schools have been corrupted for 30 years. No wonder why our national rankings are so low."

"She's going to bring back power to the states and local government!"

"We should have a choice of where to send out kids to school."

Okay.

-First off, what is this gravy boat you speak of? This isn't 1992. Half my monthly salary LITERALLY covers my rent and students loans. That's it. Someone show me the gravy boat lol.

-Not all states have unions. Look at South/North Carolina, Georgia, Texas and Virginia. Teachers aren't protected by crazy, lunatic parents that can literally come in and claim a teacher treated Johnny terribly in class. Because Johnny's parents have donated a bunch of money for the new football field, the teacher is out. That's it. These 5 states also rank on average 50th, 49th, 48th, 47th, and 44th in SAT/ACT scores. If I felt undervalued, was under paid, and was attacked all the time, I wouldn't be a highly effective teacher down there either. I'm lucky that I get to deal with amazing parents. I definitely count my blessings.

-You know what brings change? HOME LIFE. Checking your child's homework. Making sure they even brought it home. Raising them in general. Teach them right and wrong. Just LOVE them. That's the biggest thing. Get off your phone and show your kids that you care. Compared to 30 years ago, teachers not only have to teach, but we also make sure kids have a quarter to pay for their reduced lunch, set them up with charities to get them glasses, let them stay after school just to talk and much more. Society has changed folks, and it's not a liberal/conservative thing. I've seen vile social behaviors from both sides.

-Power to the states. Okay, I actually don't have a problem with this at my specific district. Except not everyone works where I do lol. Here are a few problems. If there are no national standards, then a child that moves from Alabama to New York could be in a completely different grade because they are behind/above where they should be. Did I like how common core was rolled out? Absolutely not. Did it start out as a good thing? Yes. After I did more research on it, I was like "Oh, this makes sense." When Pearson starts ruling NYS with their tests and politicians get ansy and roll things out because Pearson owns them, that's where you have a problem. What if a state's budget starts tightening up and they want to cut special ed positions that are no longer mandated? They could do that now. What if a district wants to blacklist some books for English? The list goes on and on.

-Choice. You do have a choice. No one is stopping you from homeschooling or sending your kids to private school. I went to private school from K-8 and public school from 9-12, so I've experienced both sides of this. I remember doing a debate in high school and I got assigned "pro school vouchers". I though it would be a piece of cake. Wrong. Before I did research, I didn't understand the effects of money getting spread out throughout a district. I didn't understand how poorly charter schools scored compared to what they were promising. I didn't know that private companies had money invested in these schools. Ever since then, I've been anti vouchers. I was lucky and my parents sent me to a tiny private school. Most of these vouchers don't even count for private schools out of district, so I don't know why people think they can magically go wherever they want.

Guys. Teachers want to teach your kids. We don't sit on our butts and ignore your kids all day. Every profession has its bad apples. The problem with education is that when you hear about a bad teacher, it gets blown up (which I TOTALLY get). Look at the percentage of good to bad though. We love your kids!

*edited to add: A picture of Ryan Gosling to make me feel better.