What About NOW?

“For thirty odd years I was a newspaper man

I made my living with a pen and a pad

God I miss the smell of paper and the ink on my hands...

I've got a lot to give say can't you see

I'm still breathing and my heart still beats

They took the car but they left the lease

Does anybody want what's left of me?

Boarded up the house, they left the keys

Foreclosed on my city, rolled up these streets

But I ain't checking out, I still got my dreams 

Does anybody want what's left of me?"

 --Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Billy Falcon

As a teacher, these lyrics ring true about the state of education in 2014.  Politicians have taken so much from our schools--especially funding--while they continuously rack up the debt to testing and textbook companies--it feels like they have, indeed, taken the car but left the lease, left to do our magic with very little except tests to administer.

While they've done everything they can to figuratively (and sometimes literally) board up our schools, to roll up the very streets that lead to democracy, 

they left the keys--THE TEACHERS.  

They may be counting us out, as they seek to disempower unions, conjure formulas with test companies to make it look like we're inept, and lower the expectations for those entering our field. 

But... We haven't checked out, we've still got our dreams... Though on a daily basis, I hear beloved, exhausted colleagues wondering if anybody wants us... We feel we are all that is left.  Do you even worry about the lease on the car that was taken away or do you just find an alternate way to get there?

What can you do with the keys to the boarded-up schoolhouse?  Most teachers I know would say that as long as they breathe and their hearts still beat, they will not vacate the premises!  As they say on ABC's The Bachelor, "We're here for the right reasons."  

Though the Internet and media are gorged with "articles" touting the merits of private/charter schools, the buyer (literally) should beware:  take time to discover the money and intentions behind each claim, each website.  Look for the truth.  (It's hard to find, but it is there.)  People are waking up to the oxymorons: "reform" and "No Child Left Behind".  

What politicians didn't count on:

--In a December 2013 article in The Boston Globe, researchers found, "When (the researcher) divided the schools she was looking at into public and private categories and controlled for demographics, the schools stacked up quite differently. Public schools seemed to be producing better test scores than private. They were also doing better than charter schools."

The article goes on to quote the researcher, "Once we actually delved into those achievement statistics, public schools turned out to be more effective. Public school students are outscoring their demographic counterparts in private schools...at a level that is comparable to a few weeks to several months." 

--On March 4, 2014 The Network for Public Education has called for Congressional hearings to investigate the misuse, overuse, and multiple costs of standardized testing.

And from Diane Ravitch's blog, check out this information:

• The Pulitzer prize winning historian, Lawrence Cremin, explained it this way: When the history of the United States is written from the vantage of the middle of the 21st century, and the question asked is what was it that made the United States the preeminent nation in the world during the 20th century, the answer will be found in the 19th century. Cremin argued that it wasn’t the Gatling gun, or the telegraph, or the telephone, or Fulton’s steamboat that made America great. Rather, it was the invention of the common school. That is the gift that keeps on giving.
• It was the public schools that gave America some mobility across social classes, providing a modicum of truth to the myth that we were a classless society.
• It was the public schools that changed our immigrants into patriotic Americans.
• It was the public schools, along with public libraries, that gave Americans the skills and opportunities to develop the kinds of knowledge that Thomas Jefferson had rightly noted is first among the necessary conditions for a democracy to function.
• It is the public schools that serve most of our nations’ special education students, hoping to give them productive lives, and hoping to give their parents a modicum of relief from a tougher parenting role than most of us have had to face.
• It is the public schools that primarily serve the English Language Learners who, in another generation, will constitute a large part of the work force that we depend upon.
• It is the public schools that serve America’s neediest children and their families.
• And it is the public schools, in the wealthier neighborhoods, that provide a large proportion of American students with a world-class education.

Stand up for every child's right to a free and equal education.  Stand up for your teachers.  What about NOW?

"What About Now"

You wanna start a fire
It only takes a spark
You gotta get behind the wheel
If you're ever gonna drive that car

If you wanna take a bite
You'd better have the teeth
If you're gonna take that step
Then get up off of your knees

'Cause tonight we're alive

Who'll stand for the restless and the lonely?
For the desperate and the hungry?
Time for the count, I'm hearing you now.
For the faithful, the believer,
For the faithless and the teacher.
Stand up and be proud...
What about now?

You wanna start a fight
You gotta take a swing.
You gotta get your hands in the dirt
To see what the harvest will bring.

You wanna raise your voice
Don't be scared to breathe
Don't be afraid to hurt
Don't be ashamed in need

'Cause tonight we're alive

Who'll stand for the restless and the lonely?
For the desperate and the hungry?
Time for the count, I'm hearing you now.
For the faithful, the believer,
For the faithless and the teacher.
Stand up and be proud...
What about now?

The leaves fall like reasons that drift through the seasons
'Til dreams are just fade dark and grey.
And all of your plans that slip right through your hands
Are just things that you take to your grave.

Tonight we're alive.

Who'll stand for the restless, for the lonely?
For the desperate and the hungry?
Time for the count, I'm hearing you now.
For the faithful, the believer,
For the faithless and the teacher.
Stand up and be proud...
What about now?
What about now?
What about now?
What about now?