Back in the Jurassic Age, when I was wearing a PTO treasurer hat or two, my role in the celebration of Teacher Appreciation week was to write a generic letter (“make it warm – warm”, one obnoxiously sentimental PTO prez once said), print it out on “pretty” paper, write a check out to *each* teacher in the school, stuff the letter and checks into envelopes and shove them into each teacher’s mailbox. The amount of the checks? Maybe $20 or $25? I can’t really remember but it was a small token. A pittance. How many boxes of Kleenex will $20 buy? What about books for the classroom library? It was a pitifully small gesture but at least we tried.

I loved the treasury business but I had senioritis when Mouse graduated from high school and I did a cartwheel (oh, not really) when I handed the Commie High PTSO treasury over, even though it was to a person who didn’t seem to be a good candidate for that particular job. I was done done done and I dunno what happened after that.

So I haven’t thought much about Teacher Appreciation Week until this year. I can’t write coherently about the whole “education reform” movement. The one where big corporations will apparently provide a better education to our children than the public education system we have spent 100 or more years (?) building. Our system needs change but it doesn’t need the kind of change that a lot of politicians are crowing about. Our teachers are on the front lines here. They need support. They need more money. They need to teach SMALL NUMBERS OF STUDENTS!!!! And we as a society need to figure out how to pay people who have a marginal (or no) education a living wage so that they don’t have to be dependent on welfare (or pimps or drug dealers) and can provide for their children and send them to school. I will darn betcha that those girls stuck in that house of sin and horror in Cleveland for 10 years were missing their schools and some of their teachers…

It’s Teacher Appreciation Week. Don’t go out and hug a teacher unless that’s all you can afford to do and you are damn sure that teacher *wants* a hug!. Buy a damn year’s worth of Kleenex for his/her classroom, or school supplies for the kids who can’t afford their own, or a significant number of books if you can afford that. VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE! Vote for school board members who know what the HELL they are doing. Vote for politicians who have actually spent SIGNIFICANT time hanging around schools and are not listening to the likes of Bill Gates…

Good night,
Kayak Woman on a rant

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