Teacher of the Year: In My Dreams

My district would never dare to make me their new TOY: Teacher of the Year. But if they did, here is the speech I would deliver at the banquet.

"Thank you, thank you. This is a great honor. I'm not sure why I was chosen to be behind the podium tonight. There are far better and greater teachers than myself to honor.

"I'm not the best teacher in the district. In fact, I'm not the best teacher at my school. My saving grace is that I care deeply about the wellbeing of my students, all of it, not merely their academics, and I am the most kid-friendly teacher in the building.

"Teaching is one of the most difficult gigs a person could undertake, and if done right, most of what makes a great teacher is not only unrecognized, it is scorned.

"The teacher who notices that a child is absent too much, calls the parent, and discovers the cause, and then follows up with the guidance counselor, social services, child abuse or bullying hotline, whatever, wherever, to see that the child receives the help she or he needs, whose efforts go unrecognized because that does not translate into higher test scores, for that teacher I accept this award.

"The teacher who spends thousands of dollars of salary to provide food, clothing, and other needs because others cannot or will not, even though that will never be captured in a Value Added formula and therefore will not be appreciated, for that teacher I accept this award.

"The teacher who helps children to a better future but did not score high enough decades ago on their SAT exam, whom the political leaders of the state scorn as not being among the 'best and brightest,' yet their work qualifies them as 'best and brightest,' for that teacher I accept this award.

"The teacher who comes from another country, who is an excellent teacher, who is loved by all her students, but cannot pass an exam in English writing but wait, is teaching children how to speak and understand her language and therefore does not need to be knowledgeable in writing an essay in English, and thus loses her job, but is a great teacher nonetheless, for that teacher I accept this award.

"The teacher who is now spending thousands of dollars to pass qualifying exams because a for-profit company, whose name is now a swear word among professional teachers, is in charge of the exams and has set the passing rates at a level which does not serve to identify competent teachers but does serve to maximize said company's profits, for that teacher I accept this award.

"For teachers of color, and I hope the term is not offensive as it is the current linguistic coin of the day, who are pushed out of their jobs because they teach where they are needed most, in our most challenging schools ... they are great teachers and are the best hope our students of color have, for those teachers, I accept this award.

"For the teacher who forgoes the easy way, that of test prep, and tries to expose children to new ideas and experiences, who wants them to think deeply about what they are learning, and therefore will never have the best scores in the building, suffer the approbation of administrators who are only driven to achieve high scores and a school grade, and are under threat of termination although they are doing the real job of teaching, for that teacher, I accept this award.

"For the teacher who knows how unprepared a Teach for America colleague is, helps them become a qualified teacher who is effective in the classroom, and then has to listen to criticism about how bad they are and what a great teacher the TFA colleague is, for that teacher who grins and bears it, I accept this award.

"For every teacher who is told that their union, their only protection and help against the daily assault that they face, is the enemy of the people, for that teacher I accept this award.

"For every teacher, and this is all of us, who have to fight off the stupid ideas of self-designated experts who have never spent a day in the classroom, but think because they made some money in a tech industry that they know better than anyone else, but every idea they have ever had has failed, but they don't stop with their destructive efforts, for all those still fighting, I accept this award.

"For every teacher who can't help but give the 'teacher look' to the wealthy and powerful elite in their city as said wealthy and powerful elite explain why they would never send their children to a public school to suffer under the conditions imposed by the policies they push, for those teachers I accept this award.

"Public education is facing a crisis of extinction. The uber-wealthy have come out of the shadows and taken over government. They seek to establish an American Feudalism. We are in their way. They seek to destroy us.

"We must fight. We must fight them on the beaches; we must fight them in our towns. We must fight them in the countryside and in every city. We must yield no inch of soil uncontested. There are millions of us but few of them.

"The time is upon us. These next years are critical if we are to preserve our democracy and our freedom. We must use our vote, while we still have it, and remove from power every enemy of our freedom and our right to self-government, for this is what the destruction of public schools is really about.

"I see many scowling faces in my audience. Good, because you are not educators. You are the ones who hijacked this process to name a Teacher of the Year. You don't want to be called out, not yet, because we can still make a difference.

"And we will."