Summer is a much anticipated, yet strange season for me. There is so much time and so much choice revealed in each and every day. I make doctor appointments and schedule dental cleanings. I organize drawers, book bags, and my car. I plan getaways, vacations, and day trips. And somedays, like today, I just sit outside and let my mind drift. And it’s this drifting that can make summer truly transformational for me. All… that… thinking…
During this morning’s mind drifft, I start thinking about the times my mother would comfort me when my feelings were hurt. My feelings always got hurt, by the way. I cried easily and felt things deeply which made me especially vunerable to bullies and the unkind. I remember what my mom and other sweet people comforting me would often say when I was distaught over the latest hurt. I can hear their words, even today. “They’re just jealous.” I was always baffled by this contention. Jealous of me? As a child, I was poor, had a terrible overbite, and came from a broken home. It seemed ludicrous.
But this morning I reconsider these words of comfort and what it might mean to me now as an educator and part of the public education system which has become a target for harsh criticism and bullying from the public sector. I turn on the news and hear the reporter tease the next feature with the tag, “What EXACTLY is being taught in your child’s classroom?” I can’t help but feel a little hurt; I answer aloud to the television screen, “I’m teaching what I’ve always taught–reading and writing.” Through my hurt feelings, the consolation phrase from bygone years resurfaces and it hits me, “They’re just jealous!” All of these attacks on teachers and public education may actually be rooted in jealousy, pure and simple.
When I first started teaching in 1992, our school was offered a free television for every classroom with one stipulation– we would have to have the children all watch Channel One, a kids news feature, each and every morning. The news feature only ran about 15 minutes, but it had a few breaks for commercials. Many of the commercials advertised soda pop and military enlistment. As a new teacher, hungry for the free television, I had to be educated by the veteran teachers, many of whom spoke out against the use of Channel One. They railed against the idea of using school time to sell products to students through the forced viewing of commercials. These same teachers protested the Pepsi and Coke machines being placed in our school’s lobby, too. The machines were there for a couple years before the teaching staff and parent groups won the battle against selling unhealthy, sugary drinks to the kids–hooking them on a lifetime of unhealthy habits. These two instances highlight how business-minded corporations who want to make money through the public school system could conceivably be jealous and desirous of the potential money-making possibilities not being realized in the name of protecting children and the sanctity of learning. We, as teachers, have done them no favors in promoting their brand as we have kept a tight focus on educating kids. We may have even made some enemies, as a matter of fact.
Sadly, despite our best intentions, the list of groups targeting schools and teachers only seems to be growing. Now I hear fervor in the school board meetings over banning books and the teaching of Critical Race Theory. I hear the real fear and feel the protective energy of these parents as they stand up with papers they’ve printed off the internet about how the schools are indoctrinating their children. I get quiet, and I try to understand. I think to myself, “Where is this coming from?” I’ve been here in this classroom for nearly 30 years teaching the children of this community reading and writing skills. I promise there were no secret professional development days spent planning how to shift the political viewpoints of children. We haven’t compiled reading lists with the goal of making one group of students feel guilt or shame. We read the stories we always have, stories with universal truths about the human experience. Stories of struggle and triumph, stories of enduring friendship and love and stories that spark the imaginative spirit. So, why do politicians appear in their campaign commercials, red-faced and angry, shouting about taking back our schools?
If I fall back on the sage words from my childhood, I guess I’d have to say it’s because they’re jealous. Jealous, perhaps, of the work we do in schools and how starkly it contrasts to the empty promises of politics. Maybe deep down in the heart of that ranting politician who’s creating a mythology about schools, there is a really unhappy man or woman who wishes they could do more rewarding work like teaching. A job where at the end of the day someone draws you a picture and gives you a hug before heading out to the bus.
I once thought it was silly to believe someone would treat you with malice because they envied you. Now, I’m not so sure. There is much to be envied about the free and public education American school children receive. And I see now how that has, quite possibly, led to where we are today in American education.
Summer gives me all this time to think.
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