On Sept. 11, I was invited by the VIVA Project to fly to New York to attend the MSNBC Teacher Town Hall hosted by Brian Williams. I was grateful and excited to represent rural Minnesota on the national stage again after attending a conference on the RESPECT initiative in Washington, D.C. last August.
After leaving the Town Hall on Sept. 23, I was inspired and encouraged, but not for the reasons one would think.
Stepping from a rural setting into the heart of New York can be intimidating. The city is beautiful and busy, the set was equally produced and controlled. I imagine viewers at home saw solidarity and unity, but that was not the case in person. The tone of the Town Hall was that of entrenched, union teachers from large schools vying for camera time.
My experience as a northern Minnesota teacher did not mesh with their world views. There was booing and cheering. Dissenting voices and ideas were lost. The rural experience was drowned out, and I failed to push our issues to the front. They may not have understood anyway.
I was disappointed but I flew home encouraged. I was inspired by the unrecognized, quiet change that Indus School is so good at.
• Indus School has quietly helped students find success when their world and local community tells them they will fail. They quietly succeed.
• Indus School has quietly transformed reading education in Koochiching County through pioneering the Reading First program without recognition.
• Indus School has quietly become the safe place for students, 80 percent of whom choose to attend our school. I am encouraged by that every day.
• Indus School has quietly led the area in educating in practical, civic involvement by organizing student-moderating local political forums.
• Indus School has quietly been recognized for a staff member as National Teacher of the Year.
• Indus School quietly educates children out of poverty and gives them opportunity.
My school is quiet, but powerful.
I am impressed with the quiet achievement of my students. I am encouraged by the quiet mentoring of individuals that we can do. We may be unsung even in our area and certainly on the national scene, but I like the quiet success we and our students enjoy. Local involvement is so much more effective than playing on national scene.
Teacher voices are key to solving our education issues and exploring real solutions. The quiet voices were missing at the MSNBC Teacher Town Hall. The give and take and exploration leading to solutions was kept at bay. There was no exchange of ideas, so there are many questions left unaddressed:
• “How does providing medical care and breakfast really serve parents?”
• “Will the Common Core force us to teach to a test?”
• “How are Universities failing to prepare educators fully?”
• “Why don’t we only allow master teachers to begin an administrative degree program?”
• “How does the struggle between unions and administration help our students?”
• “Why do teachers see unions as the strongest advocates for education
instead of parents who are the strongest advocates for their children, why the disconnect?”
These questions can best be tackled in the trenches of organizations like VIVA that provide real time cooperative discussions and synthesis. Without a doubt, the quiet and the boisterous can work together equally and better off the national record in idea exchanges like those provided by the VIVA project which connects teachers directly with policy makers. Next up is a policy recommendation for evaluating teachers in Minnesota. Real work can be done when teachers come together (and step away from the antagonism so common between administration and teachers unions) and look for real solutions.
I am thankful to have been invited and will probably attend next year and “push” my way forward quietly to the cameras. I have much to say and I have gotten my feet wet. But for now, I will simply do the silent work of a teacher at Indus School invested in the lives of students. This is what most teachers do. One day at a time, they make a world of difference.
