A Teacher's Promise: I Will Not Go Down Quietly

As a teacher who spends large amounts of time working with my students after they graduate, as well as when they are in my class, I know I am expendable. I believe in my students potential as agents of transformation as well as workers, people whose writings, actions, artistic expression might help make the world a better place.I try to provide a model for them of someone who loves to learn, loves to teach and views freedom and justice as more than just words.

Which brings us to the year 2015. The last thing those setting education policy, or for that matter those ruling our government want is teachers like me. So I will not go down quietly. I will fight for my students, the students of the future, and all teachers who love their students and their job. I may not win this battle. But in the course of this fight, I will leave a record of our battle for public education and the dignity of teaching in whatever words I can find so that future generations will know that the suppression of teaching and learning by the powerful was not something easily undertaken or completed.