I love the country I was born and raised in. America is truly beautiful to me - along with all its people. But as a student of history throughout my life, I have never seen us as a people who were at the top of the world because of our test scores. The SPIRIT of America is what makes us who we are! Corporations telling you that you got where you are because of test scores are selling you a product - THEIR TESTS! At no point in all my history studies did I ever see us atop of a list of testing as a people. But I recall the great moments of U.S. history - JFKs speech Ask not what your country can do for you; and MLK, Jrs Ive Got a Dream; and our goal to put a man on the moon first; and the way we come together as a nation when we need to! These are not elements of test scores. They are the SPIRIT of this nation. And these things are NOT created in test prep classrooms. The spirit of America is created in reading the great writers and debaters and history of the country and the world. The spirit of America is created in the religious halls where we learn and share. The spirit of America is created on the PLAYGROUND, in the DEBATES, in the MUSIC ROOMS, on the canvas in ART ROOMS,... Americans have never been a people of test scores. We are intelligent!!! But our intelligence is shown through our SPIRIT!! The fight, and the strike, I am currently in the center of is not just about saving our town, Reynoldsburg. It is about saving the SPIRIT OF AMERICA! The ability of our children to grow up with teachers who love them, not testers who demean them and conform them. The future of America lies in the people who give more than they take - and it always has! It lies in the SPIRIT they bring to us!! The police officers, the EMTs, the doctors, the nurses, the ministers, the teachers, the people who work for the betterment of our society without care for what it costs them or for how much they make. When the chips are down, when things look hopeless, we go to those people - We remember our best teachers! We call the police for help! We go to the doctor for advice! We attend church and call our pastor for guidance! This is not a fight I want. This is not a strike I want. This is not a cause I chose. It chose me. Here. In Reynoldsburg, where I thought I was safe from having to deal with the forces of corporate greed and safe to quietly raise my kids and work my days away as a teacher without a bigger sacrifice. But now that this fight has found me, I WILL ANSWER THE CALL!! Not because I want to be the one to stand up and say Enough! But because someone needs to! Someone needs to remind the world that America lives and thrives and is a great place because of OUR SPIRIT!!!!
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 12:45:47 +0000
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