Proud Mom Moment!
A couple Fridays ago, my son came home and told me that his
favorite teacher had been fired. As it turns out, this teacher, through my son’s
introductions, has become a personal friend of mine so I immediately set out to
get the full story. As we spoke on the phone, the more she explained, the less
it made sense… Something was not right, and there was a movement afoot to
correct it.
Back Story - My son attends a small school, in a small
school district, no doubt with a small budget. After losing his favorite music teacher
last year (who incidentally took a higher paying gig in the Bay Area), he was a
little disenchanted with the school until he connected with the new science
teacher. She has contributed to his happiness at going to school every day with
her friendship, enthusiasm, and ability to make science fun and interesting. He
tells me about how many of the students enjoy her so much that she’s got a line
of kids waiting to get into her classroom every morning and lunch time. Shortly
into this school year, Bran came home and told me all about this teacher and convinced
me of our commonalities and that we should become friends. We met at
back-to-school night and agreed to get together in the future. We had a group
outing at the Veteran’s Day Parade and I observed her interacting with her own
children and mine – inserting little scientific explanations for things, making
small connections to the larger world, and demonstrating the importance of
being involved with your community – all with a healthy dose of humor and her
incredibly contagious laugh.
Fast forward and the principal is telling the teacher that she
will be fired, unless she chooses to resign. She has four days to think about
it. This is despite all of her positive observations and reviews and was not
presented to her as an unfortunate budget decision. So, here we have a
seemingly stellar first-year teacher being fired for reasons unclear and a
bunch of upset people. Further into the story, it’s more than just this
teacher. This same personnel action is affecting multiple teachers and the brand
new principal and vice-principal. Curious.
While I was worried about how to broach the subject with the
administration and having a difficult time reaching the principal, Bran sprang
into action. He coordinated a student meeting and put together and distributed a
petition and flyers to create a mass school presence at the next school board
meeting. I helped him draft a letter to an education reporter at the Sacramento
Bee, with hopes of getting her engaged in this odd situation. I, myself, was
not going to be able to attend the board meeting, due to mandatory attendance
for a class I am taking. So, fortunately, a dad was able to take a group of
kids, including Bran.
I eagerly awaited the update…
Brannen arrived home around 10pm, bubbling with adrenaline
leftovers and excitement. He shared with me as much as he could remember and
lamented that he wished he had remembered a notebook and pen to take notes
during the meeting. “My brain couldn’t hold everything that was being said,” he
told me. The room was packed – normally about eight people attended these
meetings and that night there were about one hundred. His friend, K, kicked off
the student speeches and Bran followed with his short speech and handed the
board members his stack of two hundred signed petitions. The speeches continued
with supportive parents and others, one of which garnered three rounds of
applause from the audience and a tear shed by one of the teachers under fire.
Bran was exceptionally impressed by her impassioned speech, as she is his
friend’s quiet and reserved mom, and he was proud of her for speaking up.
Listening to him tell me the story, I sat in awe of my child
and this amazing life experience he had gained. I listened to him tell me that
he should have eaten beforehand, as it was difficult to sit there hungry for
hours in the evening. I was proud that he plowed through his stage-fright to
get up and speak and how he felt the adrenaline rush and was still shaking. I
smiled at his indignation at being chastised for the students’ involvement by
one of the board members. And, I was impressed at how observant he was to
notice the board members’ disrespectful verbal and non-verbal communication –
with their interruptions, coarse language, head shaking, and eye rolling.
I don’t know what the outcome of this particular situation will
be, but I do know a few things. There are people watching what our governments
are doing and many of them are our youth. I’m sure that more than one person
noticed the elected board member chastising the students for their involvement,
instead of commending them for taking an interest in what is happening at their educational institution. I truly
hope that there is a positive outcome, not only for the educators involved, but
to demonstrate to the youngsters that it is worth it to pay attention and it is
worth it to speak up.
Bran and the others were thrust into this amazing learning experience
by their concern for their community, their courage, and their confidence in believing
that they had the skills and the right to be involved. I’ve said this to my
children before, but they are miles ahead of me at their age. It’s every parent’s
dream for their children to be better. I think it should be all of our dream, for
the human race to continue to evolve and improve.
I am a proud momma today and I am looking forward to more shining
moments from my children.
