MY WISH LIST RANT AS AN EDUCATOR!!!
By:  Audrey Wicker 

I wish educators could still teach students the type of material that would enable each of them to become empowered with the knowledge that they really need to be successful. I wish we still centered lessons around teaching children the importance of their lives and how they can make positive contributions to the world in which they live. I wish our nation was more concerned about creating feelings of success in the area of a student's potential expertise. I wish growth in progress could still be measured by how much a student learns to think for him or herself instead of measuring the progress by focusing on how much they DO NOT know according to a state mandated test. I wish educators were given the deserved credit of being the professionals who are capable of empowering students with the real knowledge that they will need for their futures. I wish classroom educators were the ones in charge of our education system. I wish parents came to school on a regular basis and sat in classes with their children to show support for their children and their educators. I wish leaders of our communities would come to our schools and see what educators and students do on a daily basis. I wish our government leaders would spend weeks or months in our schools making observations of the dedication that educators have for the success of their students. We need reform in the PROCESS of HOW we educate our students in the classroom. We need reform in WHAT we teach our students in the classroom. WE NEED REFORM IN WHO decides what we teach to our students in the classroom. We need the people who are in charge of that reformation to be in our schools actively engaged in the education process.

I AM TIRED OF KEEPING MY MOUTH CLOSED. DOING SO MAKES ME A PART OF THE PROBLEM WE ARE FACING IN EDUCATION!! I AM DESTROYING THE ONE THING I WANTED TO FIGHT FOR-- THE RIGHT FOR EVERY CHILD TO FEEL CONFIDENT, LOVED, SAFE, AND INTELLIGENT. NOT STRESSED, SCARED, UNWORTHY OR UNINTELLIGENT.