It shouldn't take a tornado for teachers to be appreciated

(My latest Huffington Post blog)

It came as a shock to teachers in the Joplin School District Monday when we returned for the first official day of duty and were greeted by hundreds of well-wishers, applauding and letting us know how much we were appreciated.

This is my 13th year of teaching and I have never experienced anything like it. Our supporters carried signs and we even had a band playing in the background as we walked across the Missouri Southern State University campus to the building where our first day meeting was held.

For the first time, we received encouragement in person from Gov. Jay Nixon and via video from Barry Manilow, who donated a semi-truckload of band instruments to our high school, country singers Keith Urban and Lady Antebellum, NBA legend Charles Barkley and others.

It was an incredible way to start the school year, but in many ways, it was an illusion. We were being greeted as survivors, people who somehow were managing to have school less than three months after a tornado wiped out a substantial portion of our city and destroyed or heavily damaged 10 of our 19 schools.

Except for that tornado experience, which has changed us and our schools forever, we are the same teachers who have been here year after year, doing the same thing that brought us into education -- helping children.

And when the glow of that inspiring first day fades, we are still members of a profession that has been unfairly criticized and marginalized by people who are willing to sacrifice public education to improve their bottom line.

In one week, the state of Missouri will enact a law that demonizes teachers as perverts by banning social networking, texting, e-mailing, and phone calls between educators and students.

In five months, the same legislators who have been loudly trumpeting the way Joplin schools have bounced back after the May 22 tornado will revisit legislation that strips teachers of tenure and puts us on a merit pay system based on scores on horrendously flawed standardized tests.

We are still being hammered by the slate of stories that note that three-fourths of Missouri schools failed to meet No Child Left Behind standards, with few balancing the horror stories with accurate information about the impossibility of reaching those standards.

In states across the nation, we hear legislators talking out of both sides of their mouths, claiming that teacher unions are the cause of all problems in education, but claiming that they love teachers, the same people who make up those unions.

Make no mistake. When the euphoria of our opening day at Joplin subsides, we will still remain firmly entrenched in positions that have been targeted by people who will reap substantial profits if public education is destroyed.

When politicians are pushing the nonsense that teachers who receive six weeks of Teach for America training are better for children than those with years of classroom experience, public education is in trouble.

When our leaders claim that the results of standardized tests and teaching to those tests is the path public education needs to be taking, and then make sure their children are safely ensconced in private schools that place no such emphasis on testing, then it is obvious that public education and classroom teachers have been targeted.

When politicians slash funds for public schools while cutting taxes for job creators who never create jobs, they are sounding the death knell for public education.

Not for one instant did I question the sincerity of those who gathered on the Missouri Southern State University campus to greet Joplin teachers Monday. I truly believe that they appreciate teachers and know that it has been a trying three months for us.

I also have no doubt that despite the character assassination politicians have leveled at classroom teachers, a wide majority of the American public have faith in those same teachers. Sadly, in this day and age it is not the average American taxpayer who replenishes politicians' campaign accounts, but those who resent having to put some of their money into public education, and would very much like to end the system that has served America well.

When teachers enter the classroom, we work to educate every child. That is what sets American education apart from the rest of the world.

In many school systems, it is too late for this year, but it is time that teachers in every school district in this country are welcomed back with the same affection that the teachers in the Joplin School District received earlier this week.

Teachers have dedicated themselves to providing children with the tools to succeed. It shouldn't take a tornado to show them some appreciation.