Why I still believe in public education

Disclaimer: It is not my intention in this post to convince you to send your kids to public school.  Or private school or homeschool, for that matter.  I cannot do that, nor is it my place to do so.  Only you know your kids, so you get to decide what you think is best for them.  The thoughts below are merely my opinions and some observations I have had lately. In a word, I still believe in public education because of teachers.

 As I was sitting at a teacher award banquet earlier this week, I was struck by the number of outstanding individuals that were all sitting in the same room.  These people are intelligent, creative, passionate, and driven.  I have learned a lot in my two years of teaching, and most of it is attributed to the fact that I have stolen ideas from my coworkers.  Most of all, though, the people in the room that night are caring.  Many of them pour their lives into their jobs, and it is certainly not because they get paid to do so.  They do it because they love kids, and because once they get into the classroom and see those faces, caring is really the only option.

I am not discounting the fact that there are bad teachers.  Of course there are, just as there are lazy, apathetic people in every profession.  In my lifetime, I have only had a very small handful of these teachers, but it only takes one teacher like this to know that they do exist.  But at least in Norman, the number of good teachers far surpasses the number of bad ones.  I wouldn't send my kids to school just anywhere.

 One of the speakers at the banquet that night is a SWAT Team member.  He told a story of entering a house one morning where two children, ages five and ten, lived.  The kids' parents were passed out on the couch from a drug overdose.  Meanwhile, the children had gotten themselves up, gotten dressed, and were in the kitchen packing their lunches.  When the SWAT Team member walked over to talk to the children, the oldest one looked up at the officer with tears of desperation in his eyes and asked, "Sir, will we still get to go to school today?"

 You see, for many kids whose home lives are wrecked, public education is their best hope.  It is at school where they can find consistency,  get a balanced meal, learn the skills they need to break the cycle of poverty and abuse in their families, feel safe, and hear from at least one person that they are worth something.  I always try to remind my students that, in the words of Aibileen from The Help, "You is kind.  You is smart.  You is important." Because once my students walk out the front doors from school every day, I'm not sure when they will hear those words again.  I can't even wrap my head around what some of these six-year-olds have to deal with on a daily basis.

I am not always great at my job.  In fact, there are days when I feel like a complete and utter failure.  On those days, I am especially thankful that I am not in this profession alone.  They say that "it takes a village to raise a child.". As part of "the village," I am glad that there are other teachers who are willing to put more work into a child than only what is necessary.  I'm inspired when I see other "village people" making shy kids speak up, teaching a child to read despite the fact that his parents never finished high school, or donating a coat to a boy who doesn't have one.  Ultimately, I believe that it is a parent's responsibility to raise his or her children.  But for those children whose parents cannot or will not do that, someone must stand in the gap.  And that is where "the village" comes in.  Because teaching isn't primarily about academics; it is about love.

 No, I don't think public education is the answer for every child.  But I do wonder where some kids would be if they didn't have a place to escape the harsh reality of their broken homes for eight hours a day, or a teacher who believed that they had inherent value because they are made in the image of God.  I think that public schools may offer the first glimmer of hope that some kids have ever had.  And that is why I haven't given up on it yet.