Wings

Flying today is increasingly iffy proposition. I mean, what with the economy and the reality that companies and entities are cutting staffs to the bare bones of functionality, what might the maintenance challenges at airlines look like? I look out the window and think about the complex moving parts that must work to keep this craft in the air and I am reminded of our school systems and their challenges to keep flying on dwindling staffs, fuel and inspiration.

Job one in the airline industry is to move people from point A to point B. Niceties like in-flight meals, drinks or a seat big enough to hold a human are falling farther and farther into the background. I pay to take my luggage and soon I'll pay for my carry on. If there is one strong motivator to lose weight, it might be the indictment of my physical size by the airplane seat and the passenger beside me.

What's clear is that the airlines are still completing the mission of getting people to their destinations and hopefully the aircraft they fly in will stay in the air all the way there. Schools however have a different mission. Our job one is nothing short of preparing kids for their futures. This doesn't just mean moving them from point A to point B, this means doing whatever is necessary to prepare them for success. Removing the peanuts and free baggage options is not so easy here. What do we cut? Which of the important resources that kids need to be successful are to be made optional?

Being an educator has never been an easy gig. We in the industry know the truth that very few news stories tout. Teachers work long hours with few resources for little pay. This is NOT a job, it is a calling. I worry that my kid will want to become a teacher on one hand and I'd beam with pride on the other. You teachers know what I mean. What is the source of much sadness for me is watching these caring educators watch their kids' potentials suffer because resources are drying up.

I don't believe most educators would know how to be wasteful if they tried. Administrators, librarians, Tech coordinators and educators are the McGyvers of of education, making it work on a daily basis. It's amazing what they can do with nothing and while politicians offer lip service with phrases like: " We know that educators are underpaid, if only we could pay them what they're worth.." Teachers continue to make education fly because getting kids to the destination of their own success is not an option.

One cannot treat education like Wall Street and lean on the stereotype of the lazy, greedy teacher who gets three months of paid vacation each year to ease the public perception of how deep cuts are hurting good people and kids. Call it what it is, in many cases we are seeing the evisceration of crucial programs and services that kids absolutely need. If we have to cut them, we have to cut them but let them bleed in public and on the news so the voting electorate know the scope of the loss.

There is almost a muting of this suffering as we all look away pretending it isn't an event worth mourning, as if it isn't a set back that will turn back the clock on American education in a way that might take a focused decade of will to re-emerge from. Like all infrastructures, education is a stratified system where improvement is built on improvement. Once a foundation is cleared, nothing can be built until it is replaced.

What gives me faith is the level of commitment I see in the educators I work with. They aren't abandoning the plane, they can't because they have kids on board. Another source of optimism for me is the rapidly growing networks of educators who share free resources and tools daily. These tools, in the form of software and web 2.0 tools are offsetting the loss of many other resources, while preparing kids for a digital future.

Networking communities like Twitter, Plurk and Facebook are the new faculty workroom where educators are sharing ideas, tools and best practices. They are finding answers to challenges and often with no praise or thanks. I want to take a moment and thank every educator who is remaking themselves and relearning the practice because their kids need nothing short of a learning revolution. If you're a digital dumpster diver on behalf of your learners, I salute you!

This all started with a look out of the window on this flight and I'll end it by saying that educators are the wings of education and caution people to remember that teaching is and should be much more than moving kids from point A to point B.