Heart Broken Teacher of Teachers

 

My Heroes Are Falling,
My heart is breaking,
My body is exhausted, 
I fall to my knees,
Fold these hands,
I lookup,
I carry on. 

Maybe I am just too stupid not to leave.
Too stubborn to give up now.
Born for this fight,
Blessed by my Momma's angels, saints, candles, and prayers.
We look through the assessment data from his urban middle choice school,
Dr. Turner and his former Literacy Center Teacher,
Now Middle School Reading Teacher.

Yesterday,
He said: "Dr. Turner, I am lost,
Broken-hearted,
Exhausted, and
One step away from leaving."

Show me the data?
14% of their six, seventh, and eighth-graders reading at grade level,
A vast majority reading 4 or more grades behind,
I said our children need an army of tutors,
Our teachers need an aide in every class.
You should have seen their eyes roll,
Their ice stares,
The mocking shakes of their heads? 

We can't do that,
What is the plan?
Buy more of the same tech invention programs that took them to this place.
I did my best to sell change is coming.

The Reading teacher is leaving.
Sir, I am sorry,
Can you blame him?
I can't,
I can't,
I can't.

You have nothing to be sorry for,
25 years of giving your all,
25 years of lifting children,
25 years of spending your own money,
25 years of being first in the building and last out.

I will not have you,
One who is my hero,
Be sorry for giving your all. 
What is my hero doing next Thursday?

Next Thursday,
I shall join New Haven Public School Teachers as they rally the fight for their classrooms.
Come with me,
Leave fighting,
Leave standing.
Remember this one last Dr. Turner truth?
You, sir, have not anything to be sorry about,
25 years of diving in the deep end of the pool,
25 years of pulling children out from the deep end. 
25 years equals not one single sorry moment.
Let us be heroes together one more time? 

Urban teachers are far past the boiling point,
This is the breaking point.
I say it is time for a national walkout,
Anyone saying we can't do that,
Did not study Dr. King,
Did not study the Women's Suffrage Movement, 
Did not study Elie Wiesel, 
Did not study Congressman John Lewis,
Did not study the Battle of Thermopylae,
Did not study Macaulay's Brave Horatius Captain of the Gate, 
Did not study the life of Mother Teresa. 
Here me teachers, 
This is the time!

Respectfully,
Dr. Jesse P. Turbner
Uniting to Save Our Schools
Proud Badass Teacher,
Heart Broken Teacher of Teachers
Inspired Teacher of teachers



If you like to listen to the song that inspired my morning walk today, it is Makana's ZOccupy Anthem, "We Are The Man.". 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq3BYw4xjxE