Teachers Occupy the US Department of Education in Washington, DC
I boarded the Amtrak early Sunday morning in New York City and headed into Washington, DC. The weekend had finally arrived where teachers from across this nation were going to show our solidarity and use our voices to fight for public education. Educators, parents and students from 35 states occupied the U.S. Department of Education on Monday, July 28th -- and our efforts paid off. Four delegates from our group, the Badass Teacher Association (BATs) were invited into Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's office to explain to him what we stand for and why public education is so important to our nation's children.
Teaching is an issue near and dear to my heart. It was my dream when I was younger -- I would line-up my stuffed animals, and my little sister, and teach to them for hours. Even at the age of seven, I understood what it meant to engage my students -- creating lessons that my sister, and her stuffed-animal peers, would find completely captivating and inspiring.
Acting on that childhood dream, I went to college, earning both a bachelors and masters degree in education. I have had the privilege of teaching elementary and middle school students in Charlotte, North Carolina, and middle school students in Spanish Harlem and Upper Manhattan. Teaching was my truth, it was my life.
But last June, I turned in my official resignation as a 15-year veteran public school teacher. You see, I was tired and beaten down by the many politicians who value test scores over authentic learning. The worst days of my career were the ones where I left the building wondering if I was able to make a personal connection with each student who walked through my classroom door -- because budgets had been cut and my class sizes had reached 32 students. There were nights I laid awake, never falling asleep, because my end of the year evaluation depended on factors that were completely out my control, such as if Johnny could make it to school tomorrow after taking care of his three siblings while his parents worked two jobs to make ends meet.
The decision to leave my life-long dream was not an easy one. I took time to consider all angles -- especially my emotions of how it would feel to leave something I loved so dearly. On May 1, 2013, I opened up a notebook and stared at the blank pages. I was sitting at my desk, and I had 40 days remaining before I walked out of that classroom for the last time. I decided I would capture my feelings on paper, as they unfolded, and also record the stories from my students and their learnings and lessons during those last days of my career. I wanted to have a record of why I loved Teachers Occupy the US Department of Education in Washington, DC | M. Shannon Hernandez: