'Don't blame the educators,' Weaver says

Near the conclusion of his one-hour address to Menomonee Falls
educators, NEA President Reg Weaver walked around the
auditorium and shook hands.

Appearing at a Monday (February 19, 2007) staff development program in Menomonee Falls, NEA President Reg Weaver said it is time to stop blaming educators for problems facing education.

“Folks, you have the most important job in the world,” Weaver says.

“I am sick and tired of people putting you down, pretending you have the resources you need and then blaming you for problems,” he said.

“It is no longer acceptable for people not to give you the resources to do your job and then blame you when the job is not done.”

Citing the federal “No Child Left Behind” law, Weaver said he agrees with the law’s goals of raising student achievement and closing the achievement gaps.

“But the way that law is crafted makes it nearly impossible for you to accomplish what you have to do,” he said.

And then, instead of holding policymakers accountable for a bad law, he said, people blame the educators.

Weaver said we have to have high expectations not only for kids but also for policymakers. It is not a valid excuse for them to say we can’t afford to adequately fund public education, Weaver said.

“When this country decides something is important, we find the money,” he said.

Weaver encouraged the Menomonee Falls teachers and education support professionals to keep fighting for strong public education.

“We need you to stand up and speak out on behalf of your profession,” he said.

“I’ll be doggone if I’m going to let people talk bad about you,” he said, adding that such finger-pointing is not only unfair, “it negatively impacts what we’re trying to do for these kids.”

“Folks, you have the most important job in the world ... but if you don’t believe it it doesn’t matter.”

Weaver said we know the real answers to addressing our educational challenges, and they are not an underfunded “one size fits all” law that relies almost exclusively on standardized tests to measure a child’s success. The solutions involve smaller class sizes, qualified and certified teachers, safe and orderly schools, and parental involvement.

Weaver said schools need to focus on a new set of the three Rs: respect, responsibility and results.

He said it is time to “step out of the box and do things differently.” Administrators need to let teachers act creatively, and teachers need to let students do the same, he said.

He urged teachers to model proper behavior for students and to put extra effort into communicating with kids inside and outside the classroom.

“Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” he said.

He told the story of how, when he was teaching in Illinois, he would go into the lunch room and clean up student messes. Students, he said, would say, “Hey, Mr. Weaver, that’s not your job; that’s the custodian’s job.” And he would ask the students, “Really, and who made the mess?” They admitted they did, so Weaver told them they – not the custodian – should clean it up. By modeling the behavior, he said, students got the message and soon they were cleaning up after themselves.

“You are the ones who make it possible for the kids to be what they can be,” Weaver said in his concluding remarks. “Thank you for who you are, and thank you for what you do.”

Posted February 19, 2007