Another View: Teachers, remember why you started

By Allene Magill

A new school year’s starting. Despite concerns about swine flu and budget cuts, the most important thing for Georgia’s 128,000 educators is helping 1.6 million students reach new levels of achievement.

Yes, times are difficult and public education is facing serious challenges. In addition to recently announced furloughs, no one should forget that, in the years prior to the economic meltdown, the governor proposed and the legislature approved budgets that contained more than $1.7 billion in “austerity cuts.”

Nor should we forget the three-year effort launched by the governor to replace the archaic and dysfunctional Quality Basic Education funding formula with IE2 — Investing in Education Excellence. That effort ended with a whimper —the governor proposed and the legislature passed legislation calling for “more flexibility” using existing funding.

But, having faced difficult times as a paraprofessional, as a teacher and superintendent, I can recall that, when things got difficult, I focused more intently on the reasons why I went into education in the first place. I tried not to succumb to negative ways of thinking. The pride I took in being the best I could be inoculated me somehow.

Educators know that no one ever entered the classroom to get rich — our political leaders seem to be counting on that.

Educators also know the satisfactions that cannot be quantified — rewards that come when we have done our job well, when students achieve and we have made a difference in their lives. The payday comes — sometimes not often enough — when we hear from a parent or student that we have touched them in important ways. A “raise” like that elevates us, motivates us and carries us past many rocky spots.

It is a raise no one can give you but yourself. It’s also a raise no one can take away. This year I encourage every educator to work in such a way that you give yourself a whole series of raises.

In your classroom, focus on the positive professionalism that is the hallmark of great educators. For your professional and perhaps even personal sanity, rededicate yourself to professionalism in service of your students. And stay focused on your students and the quality you bring every day to classrooms and to the difference you can make.

Tough times don’t last, but tough professionals do.

Allene Magill is executive director of the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.