Open Letter to My Fellow Educators, Educational and Government Leaders

To my fellow Educators, Educational Leaders and Government Leaders

               As I put my pen to the pad or shall I say place my fingers to the keyboard, I write this letter with my heart full of hope but marked with scars from many life changing challenges faced as an educator and coach. I write these words as an imperfect man who has made his mistakes yet tried his best to live his life with integrity. I know there will be criticism no matter how strong you feel about the values you feel dear to your heart, but I stand courageous as it is time to speak on the many issues I have faced and bring to light the difficulties educators around our country and globally deal with and do so in silence.   

               This letter is being written to find my own justice and freedom from the difficulties I have faced in the world of education because I have not received that justice from the education profession and may never in my lifetime. I will rely on my relationship with my higher being to help provide that.  

               I have took many shots to the chin and got knocked down but choose to get back up under the most extreme circumstances as an educator. I hope to shed awareness of the issues and needs that plague the education system. My hope is to start the desperate talks needed to find solutions to treat our educators as true experts and professional in one of the toughest industries of public service.

                As educators you are in a point in history where you have suffered, endured and continue to navigate a pandemic. You watch your TV’s and see our society spiral out of control by racial injustice and inequality. With this injection of confusion and chaos you now see a fractured government spinning its wheels in the mud. This fracture has bleed division into one of the core pieces of our society: education. 

               I do not believe the system is completely broken.  There is truth to be said that the system does need renovation. When I mean system, I mean its people. The people are the system. You have seen MLK break down the walls of segregation to allow people of all colors to walk hand and hand in our school buildings. It is now time we truly invest and pour our souls into the system that prepares generation after generation to conquer the unthinkable.  

The old age thinking of teaching to a test, funding schools due to test scores or attendance, and focusing on the summative outcome rather than the process has dug ourselves in a deep abyss of conflict and contention. The school system will be lost in this dark sea of division if we continue down this path. We have lost faith in the people and mistakenly say the system. Our teacher and student creativity have been locked in a labyrinth that we can’t escape due to the people of the system not the system itself. We fail to have the bravery to include true history, racial understanding, accountability to parents, teachers and administration who put bandages on cancer and avoid keeping teachers and students safe. Rather than digging out the problem, they let it fester, infect and inflict more harm.  We see the world around us adapt to how improvement, learning and progress is made but continue to lag behind. As this cycle continues we will see more and more students, teachers and leaders losing their sense of belonging every day. 

               How do I know it’s not a systematic problem but it’s a people problem? I believe experience builds perspective. I have experienced many debilitating and tragic events in my career. From nepotism, teacher harassment, teacher bullying, disregarding separation of church and state, racism, failure to report abuse, failure to help a suicidal student that cost so much for so many, along with witnessing a friend and fellow colleague who was an amazing teacher convicted of homicide. The Pain and hurt is overwhelming at times. It’s a fight I have with my mental health daily. It’s now a fight I must bring awareness too. No educator or student should have to endure the difficulties mentioned. In all these situations, all parties suffer. These are burdens that were avoidable, unwanted and hard to forgive.  

               So is this a systematic issue? Is this a policy or procedure issue? Or is it a people issue? Administration and parents putting sports over life. Administrators, parents and teachers refusing to call a spade a spade and act to do what is right when the evidence is clear. Focus on the test while under funding and having no resources. Overworking a teacher and refusing to act on concerns so leaders can reach the higher step in the ladder of success. The teachers lose while administrators are immune and parents have the teacher’s livelihood in their hands even while being protected. We then expect teachers to thrive, be passionate, and go the extra mile to get students to reach the threshold of success. We are failing our society by underestimating the true root and cause of the underlying break in a system. The people cause the system to falter and hemorrhage not the system itself. 

                Teachers are facing demoralizing situations daily. Livelihoods are being destroy and stats prove it. More than 50% of teachers leave the profession within the first 5 years. The rise of STS (secondary traumatic stress) is astounding. STS is usually associated with our first responders but is now highly prevalent and causing more than 60% of our teachers to be mentally unhealthy. The responsibilities are immense and stressful. We have to be a teacher, first responder, a mandatory reporter, trauma proficient, active shooter trained, mental health/suicide trained, provide meals and snacks for the underprivileged and now be online teacher experts. The list can go on. Did I mention we are underserved and under financed? Teachers who may have master degrees or above still need to work another job to make ends meet. Health care deductibles and teacher attrition rise year after year. The people running the system have every hand in this as they make the system function correctly or insufficiently.

               So what is that solution, secret sauce or secret ingredient that can change the lives of our educators, parents and students? Our DIGNITY. How is it that you get people to create miracles, change their stories and even change the world? You teach and invest in a culture of dignity. You see the human in everyone. You bypass the imperfections and find the good.  It is through making someone feel valued, honored, respected and worthy. You pay teachers what their worth. You invest in their mental health and you wholeheartedly listen to their cries for help and act. You hold all those accountable for their actions that affect the livelihoods of those who deserve and have earned better treatment for putting unpaid countless hours to help change the journey of our next generation. 

               You help educators and students find their spirit which is the breath of our character and find true purpose in ourselves and education. Help us find what we were meant to be. Help us find the gifts waiting to erupt from our hearts.  You communicate through the empathy of our pulse of optimism, so we can find a heart at peace rather than a heart at war.  We help in finding each other’s super power that we have been searching for the moment we came to this earth. It happens when we remove standardized testing and focus on the learning process. It happens when we evaluate our teachers and help enhance their development. Not make life miserable while they are trying to learn and grow through a process that takes a lifetime to master. You hustle to make things right. Policies and procedures should be followed and law should create equal protection to our teachers. If you want teachers who are humble and hungry to invest more of themselves, you give them a playing field that allows for them to succeed more often than fail. We can’t be humble, hungry and hustle if we are not surrounded by those who do not own their faults and place blame elsewhere. Let’s create an environment that allows us to share our freedoms not imprison it. You allow educators and students to find and live their passion by not teaching to the test but by teaching to the student. Teaching to the strengths of who we are as a people. That is by being social and hands-on. By not taking away our physical activity and movement that is so desperately needed for our mental development. By allowing us to be creative with our content so we can find innovating ways to teach and learn in a time that social media controls our world. We need to build and develop programs that does not glue us to a phone but keeps us active physically and mentally.  The human race was born with creativity. So let our educators break the shackles of despair of educational imprisonment by providing the liberty to be the experts they are. We will find that enthusiasm, energy and effort that has been missing for so long. Let our educator’s energy strike like the lighting from a storm with a force you can feel within your bones. Let the sound of their success be boisterous and loud like the thunder that will soon bring rain. The rain of achievement and accomplishment. The beauty of this storm will eventually turn to sunshine when those in the storm provide the way. 

               We must be led by those in the trenches of the classroom. Give teachers the ability to create policy. Allow us to create the reasoning of why we do what we do. Teachers are reasonable and understand that it’s about kids first. The battle of society is won or lost in education. Not in politics and not in the economy. It is won with the hands of those who play in the dirt. It’s won with the ones who don’t care for public acknowledgement but praise in private. It’s done by the countless of educators who are yearning to give more for less but want to be paid for their services that want to make their life sustainable on a respectable wage to raise a family to live and help others live the American dream. Without astounding, passionate and committed teachers that make the system function properly, all can be lost. Without selfless teachers, there will be very few selfless and engaged students who want to change the course of their life. Teachers are the heartbeat to a society that has turned their hearts cold. Teachers are the warmth as a blanket that covers a newborn. We are screaming for our dignity and have the ability to manifest our countries greatness if you let us. 

               We have seen that through this pandemic along with the events of social injustice our educators and students are some of the most resilient humans on planet earth. We have persevered through one of the most contentious times in American history. Our society is a reflection of our educators and parents. As you look into the eyes of our teachers and students the mental decline is obvious. We need more attention, grace and mercy. We have been given the birthright when born to be valued, honored and treated worthily. The time is now to not just reach for the stars, but be the star. Be the light that burst with the power to illuminate who we are as a human race. Let our aura omit rays of hope and joy. Teachers don’t wear capes, but do have super powers. They save so many every day that go unnoticed. Many if not all never want validation because the reward in helping and changing lives has always been bigger than the dollar.

               It is now time to reward our passion with action. Actions are impression left inside one’s breath. For every breath new oxygen fills our divine purpose to extend our hands to those who want to be loved. Dignity is like the sweet bird songs that echo in the mountains that bring peace. Please listen to these touching songs of our teachers and students. Allow the still small voice to speak its truth that teachers have earned more their fair share. It’s time the songs of our divine purpose reach the sands of each coast, the valleys of each time zone, and the peaks of the endless mountains that stand in magnificence. Free our voices so the world can heal.