| Letters
to the editor from this week's Chronicle:
To the Editor
The State Board Can Keep My Blackbelt and The Master Educator
Premium
Opinion by Levi B Cavener
The State Board of Education has set the end of June for the Gem State’s
teachers to submit Master Educator Portfolios in the hopes of earning their
blackbelts. I am hopeful that many teachers in Idaho will be dutifully
awarded this distinguishment as those portfolios are evaluated.
But I won’t be one of them. See, like most teachers I would consider
to be Jedi Master quality, I don’t have time to crunch the keyboard for
days filling out an enormous application. Instead, I suspect I am
not alone in the Gem State in filling my days full of activities that will
actually improve my students’ instruction in lieu of filling out paperwork
in hopes of a minor pay bump.
I am attending a weeklong conference to go over the changes the College
Board made to the Advanced Placement Microeconomics and Macroeconomics
exam and curriculum. I am attending an additional conference to get
updated training in AVID academic strategies in my classroom. I am
taking professional development courses through university. I am
doing all these things because I know it will benefit my students.
Like most of Idaho’s teachers, I use the summer to reflect and improve
on the curriculum. I type out improved scaffolded notes for my exceptional
learners. I digitize my materials and put them online. I borrow new
textbooks from the library for my content areas, and dream of the day the
state provides enough money to update my history books which currently
end with an event called September 11th. Because that helps my students.
The purpose of the Idaho Legislature in passing the Master Educator
Premium was to recognize, and financially award experienced, exemplary
educators. However, the State Board has made a calculated decision
to take that legislative intent and morph it into a process so onerous
that most master teachers I know have made their own calculated decision
to spend their time working to improve student outcomes, not improve their
pocketbooks.
Which is not to say that Idaho’s teachers’ pocketbooks don’t need improving.
I work my normal job during the school year. I stay a couple extra
hours after the end of the normal day to teach night school. I teach
online during the summer. I do these things to earn enough money
to have the privilege of calling myself a public school teacher.
I know I am not the only Idaho educator who has several side gigs in order
to pay the bills.
Which is exactly the point. The purpose of that legislation was
to reward Idaho’s most talented educators for work that they already are
doing. Instead, the State Board of Education has purposefully created
a system in which our most talented educators are asked to take time away
from those tasks which makes them excellent teachers to instead complete
a mountain of paperwork.
But the state board can keep my blackbelt and their check. The
greatest blackbelt of them all--the father of karate--Ankh Itosu had Ten
Precepts for his students, with the first being the most important:
“Karate is not merely practiced for your own benefit.”
Teaching is not merely practiced for a paycheck to benefit me.
It is an art practiced to serve our students and to fulfill Idaho’s promise
to provide a thorough education for every child in the Gem State’s classrooms,
regardless of the zip code they live in. I’ll spend my summer making
sure my practice benefits my students.
Levi B Cavener is a Social Studies teacher living in Caldwell, Idaho.
He blogs at IdahosPromise.org
Redneck Review!
No. 217 - 6/24/2019
“We are in trouble!" By "we" it is meant all freedom loving Americans
who appreciate the unique opportunity our country has given us to live
in peace, to enjoy the fruits of honest labor, and to treasure the companionship
of like-minded people who live by law, the fear of God, and appreciation
for neighbors who share the same convictions!
Yes, we are in trouble! Clearly we are beset today with increasing
difficulties which have the potential to totally destroy the living conditions
we in America have long enjoyed.
Though it is a human condition to ignore events and trends which seem
unpleasant, history teaches us that we do so at our own peril! So
let's grit our teeth and take an honest look at problems which could suddenly
destroy everything we have enjoyed and hold dear!
Collapsing morality! The traditional Ten Commandments, and the
long standing belief of our Christian forefathers in the Great Commandment,
"Love God and your neighbor as yourself" as taught by a Creator God's only
son Jesus Christ, seem definitely on the decline today. We are reminded
daily of HATRED, which shows an intolerance for different points of view,
and increasing attempts to destroy past traditions and celebrations,
anything which was important in the past in creating the environment crucial
to our envious life style!
Despite the fact that a large majority of our citizens claim to be
Bible believers and members of Christian religions, we are expected to
close our eyes to the Biblically condemned practice of "gay marriage,"
of abortion, and the related practice of denying the possibility of life
arising from traditional marriage relationships. Bluntly, let us
admit that we are expected to be very "politically correct," and have no
opposing opinion nor to express one on matters that differ from the "modern"
ones today! Display the Ten Commandments publicly? No! Of course
not! Unacceptable! Celebrate traditional feast days like Christmas
and Easter? No, unless willing to accept a modern name for each!
Object to the public display of foreign beliefs and ceremonies in our nation?
Oh, no! That is intolerant! Cringe when we hear that our children
are being taught in schools at the youngest level, that everyone has the
right to choose their own sex, based on how they feel or want, rather than
agree to the historically accepted physical distinctions which have separated
men from women for all history! CRAZY!
And where is the sanity of being told we cannot teach or discuss
the Commandments in our classrooms, but must tolerate an appreciation for
foreign beliefs and practices held by Muslims, and other beliefs totally
foreign to our own! What is going on here? Do we not know that
America's wealth, freedom, and opportunity are easily traced back to our
basic Christian beliefs in the common brotherhood of mankind, based on
a loving Creator who treasures life and each of us regardless of race,
color, or creed? How can we not realize that denying or discrediting
these beliefs creates a humanity believing that everyone is free to "do
it their own way," and follow a conscience uninhibited by any outside rules
at all?
Well, it is time to step up and be counted! For readers interested
in a suggested way to stop this inevitable destruction, read on here the
next couple of weeks! A recent book has come to my attention that
proposes an intriguing way to get off of the "road to ruin" we seem to
be currently on. The answer seems possible, and really quite simple!
Just use the fact that we have a huge numerical superiority, and the conviction
as stated long ago by patriot
Thomas Paine, author of the historical book COMMON SENSE: "We have
it in our power to begin the world over again!"
Jake Wren |
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