As the new school year looms, I keep hearing Soul II Soul’s “back to life, back to reality” echoing in my head. While that refrain may be the most memorable, I cannot forget the rest of the first verse, especially “decide what you want from me.”
I do not have to think too long about what I want, what I hear educators across the state calling for when I visit them in their schools. Educators want relationships, resources, retention, and respect.
We know how important it is to build solid relationships with our students, but we must be equally committed to building relationships with families and other stakeholders. Without their support, educators cannot effectively do our jobs.
Educators want the resources necessary to meet the increasingly complex needs of our students. The last four years have shown – more than any other time in my nearly three decades-long career – how woefully under-resourced our schools are, particularly in rural and Black and brown communities.
We face a very real educator shortage. Teaching is no longer a profession people can afford to join and stay in. Teaching is a craft, and experience matters! We must restore education as a profession that people can choose for a career, not just a job…a lifetime commitment, not a short-term gig. And in that restoration effort, we must be vigilant about removing any barriers that keep talented aspiring educators from joining the profession.
The pocketbook, the policies, the procedures: these reflect priorities. Tennessee educators – despite their professional expertise, effort, and commitment to Tennessee students – are not afforded the respect they deserve. This is evident with every law and policy passed that limits professional autonomy, bans books, or allows a single standardized test – not educators – to determine whether a third or fourth grade student is ready to move to the next grade.
As your president, in addition to the 4 Rs (as I call them), I want educators to feel empowered to advocate for themselves, their students, and their colleagues.
At the work site.
At community events.
At school board meetings.
At the ballot box.
I want life and reality to support students, colleagues, and public schools regardless of zip code. I want a sustained system of public schools and a stronger TEA.
How, you ask? By asking our colleagues to join the association. By attending school board meetings. By volunteering to serve as an association representative in your building. By pushing back against false narratives about what is – or isn’t – happening in our public schools. By voting for pro-public education candidates…and then building relationships with them.
I’ve decided what I want for you, for me, for our students, for our schools. Won’t you join me? Won’t you commit to building a stronger profession, a stronger association, and a stronger Tennessee? Won’t you commit to making that our life and reality?
TEA, we can do it. Together, we can make that happen. We are Tennessee Tough.
