If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t;
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t It’s almost a cinch you won’t.
If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost,
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.
As I reflect on the poem “The Man Who Thinks He Can,” I find comfort and faith knowing that educators are some of the strongest-willed individuals I know. After all, who besides educators can do car duty, bus duty, chaperone a hormone-raged dance, do the lunch count, keep the cafeteria operating or drive a two-ton bus? What strikes me about the poem is that it is all about having the right mindset and grit to persevere. Educators are tenacious.
This legislative session finds us facing renewed attacks on our neighborhood schools and the threat of losing funding for an already under resourced system. We must have a can-do attitude to protect, advocate and lead in preserving our neighborhood schools. This starts at home in your communities and neighborhoods.
Gov. Lee aims to use state dollars to dismantle our neighborhood schools, tearing away the very fabric that binds our communities. The governor’s plan to expand vouchers to every district across the state will ultimately destroy the greatest social justice equalizer that our state can offer our youth: a quality public education. Our public education system and neighborhood schools afford us all an opportunity to better our quality of life and allow our youth a chance at the American dream, no matter their skin color or ZIP code.
The governor’s proposal allows for unaccredited and unaccountable entities to drain public dollars away from the local school districts. This will create a system that deprives our students of the high-quality education they would have received in their neighborhood public school.
As I have often shared, politics cannot be a spectator sport. We must reach out to legislators. We must share the good work happening in our public schools on a budget that ranks near the bottom in per-pupil funding. They need to hear from educators – the true education experts – on what will improve schools. Reducing class size, funding statewide teacher mentoring, improving teacher evaluation procedures and increasing per- pupil funding are just the start.
The poem I shared reminds us that success depends on our will, our mindset and our resilience. It is imperative that educators across the state assert their will to protect their neighborhood schools from being dismantled or re-segregated. Current and retired educators must have the mindset to stay engaged and tell all who will listen about the attempt to destroy their neighborhood schools and communities.
Some elected leaders in Nashville think they knocked us down when they banned payroll dues deduction, but we will prove our resiliency in this fight and ensure every student in Tennessee continues to have access to a great public education.
