A solid education is an important part of my American Dream, and I am certain it is part of yours as well. A good education leads to a good job, and a good job leads to a good life. That is why education is so important in America, that is why laws require us to go to school, and that is why everyone here is going to college.
If a good education is so important to the American Dream, we should instantly cry out when something threatens that education. Why, then, don't we? Perhaps it is because we don't care. No, we care; of course we care. Then we must not know, for if we knew we would certainly do something about it. The threat to the quality of education at Ames High is a shortage of teachers. Teachers are the rungs on the ladder of education, and without enough of them it is difficult to climb. Without more teachers our educations will suffer, and we cannot be the shining "city on a hill" that we as Americans strive to be.
Last year, the district cut its budget because they though enrollment would decline. They were wrong. Enrollment did not decline, and of eight teachers who retired after last year only three were replaced. Because of this, our teachers now must teach six periods a day instead of five. They have less time to help students outside of class and must work harder and longer to keep up. They have to make more lesson plans, grade more papers, learn the names and faces of more students, and give out more tests. Assignments come back later, so the impact of comments and grades suffers greatly.
We all care deeply about the quality of our educations; but when something threatens that quality we rarely speak out. How many of you actively spoke out against the budget cuts last year? How many of you attended the forum on that Saturday morning so long ago? I didn't, and I still regret it. Maybe I could have done something, changed something somehow, and maybe I couldn't; but at least I could have tried. I didn't try, and I missed that chance, but there are other chances: we can convince the administration to stand behind the teachers openly.
At the forum last year the teachers spoke out for themselves and their colleagues, and the students spoke out for the teachers, but no one in the High School administration publicly spoke for the teachers. That lack of public support was surely one of the biggest reasons the school board did not change their minds. We must convince the administration that hiring more good teachers is of paramount importance. It is much more important than buying new computers or building an athletic center, because a school's first and most important mission is to educate its students.
The only way anything will ever change is if we speak up about it, so do just that. Talk to the members of the administration here in Ames High and convince them to support our cause. Flood Nick Johns' office with letters in support of the teachers. Better yet, write to the individual members of the school board. If we can convince them that hiring more good teachers is even half as important as we know it is; and if the administration stands behind us, we cannot fail. But remember: if no one here does anything and nothing changes, we are just as responsible as anyone else for failing the American Dream.
by Steve Block