~Writings, Musings, Thoughts and Wit~
Even though educators are key in solving some problems that schools face, they can never be fully responsible for the serious societal problems that exist. Schools need people who will innovate with fewer disruptions.
It is time to move forward on these issues to help all children, teachers, schools, and communities.
The Problem with Restorative Justice in Public Education
All citizens should root for the success of public education, if for no other reason than 90% of the children in our nation are educated by public schools.
Traveling across the state in my role as Executive Director of Professional Educators of Tennessee I talk with a lot of people interested in public education. One of the most common complaints is a lack of response from Governor Bill Lee or his team on specific education issues. It is problematic and quite honestly has [...]
Why do people teach? The major reason someone says they teach is the ability to make a real difference in the lives of children. There are other reasons, including the fact that someone believes they are “called” to teach. Almost all teachers are linked together by a passion for educating children. The passion is innate and [...]
We need increased educator voices to make Tennessee the best state in the nation for education
Against the wishes of their own membership, teachers’ unions often embody hyper-partisanship. Reiss Becker detailing research on teachers’ unions at the California Policy Center reports that, “in the 2016 election cycle over 93% of union campaign spending went to Democrats.” Many union members are unaware that political spending by their union tends to support liberal [...]
Seemingly every year we have to revisit the issue of collaborative conferencing for stakeholders and policymakers. The initial training in the principles and techniques of interest-based collaborative problem-solving for use in collaborative conferencing pursuant to this part was initially to be developed by the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents (TOSS) in conjunction with representative organizations [...]
Adversarial tactics spurred on by outside groups with dubious agendas simply will not benefit Tennessee educators or children.
