Our mission is to teach all students.  No child is such that he/she cannot learn.  When we have a student that does not seem to learn with what efforts we have exerted, then we need to try harder.  Every student that fails is our failure.  And while we endure our failures, we must not give up.  In the war against ignorance, we are allowed to lose a few battles as long as we win the war.  Our identity as educators is predicated on this premise that we teach all children.

However, are we using all the resources at our disposal?  Are we the advocates for our children that they deserve?  Far too often we close our door and trudge on valiantly alone.  And when our efforts prove to be not enough, we often give up and proclaim the child unteachable.  Likewise, far too often road blocks are set in our way making teaching difficult and at times, impossible.

We can not give up on any child.  As the medical profession has its Hippocratic Oath, we have our promise that we will teach all children.  That means that the term, unteachable, must be erased from our vocabulary.  We cannot allow any road blocks to be put in the way of educating any child. 

Our primary road block seems to come from our state legislature.  Continued attacks on teachers both in the area of benefits and salaries undermine the concerns teachers have in regard to their students.  It’s difficult to maintain one’s focus in the classroom when one’s real concern is for their family.  Unlike a profit making business which benefits when its employees work harder and smarter, in education the correlation between effort and compensation do not exist.  Teachers are working harder and smarter.  Yet, the attack on our salaries and benefits continues.  Education is labor intensive.  The primary cost will always be in the area of staffing.  However, with the continuous attacks on benefits and salaries in the name of cost abatement, young people are hesitant to join the ranks of proud educators in the state of Michigan.  One must ask the question:  Why would a young college graduate choose education when the issues of salary and benefits are in such flux.  Our state has an older teaching population.  It is imperative that young enthusiastic graduates choose education so that we can continue to offer our children the education they deserve.