Monday, April 12, 2010

DRESSED IN RED

I love flowers! I really love flowering trees! I find them visually intriguing but... for the past 24 hours I have suffered with some of the worst allergy symptoms that I have ever experienced due the foliage. I have not been this dizzy and this forgetful since my concussion two years ago. Light is bothering me, my stomach is bothering me, my nose hurts, my sinuses hurt, I am wheezing, my throat is raw from the post nasal junk and all I really want to do is SLEEP, but sleep doesn't quell the symptoms. I can't wait until MAY, just past the LILACS (which is the most beautiful of the offenders). UGGh!!!

OK enough whining, I am really writing in support of all the teachers in Florida who are facing some of the most radical education reforms in history. Yes, our educational system is broken but is it really because of "unskilled teachers?" Or, is it because of "other things?"Here is my few minutes on the proverbial soap box. Merit pay is a good plan on paper but on paper any utopian thought looks ideal. In reality how does pay for performance work? Will every school district get extra money to support the mentors it will need for new teachers? Who will decide how evaluations will be done? How does one prevent biased evaluations? Who is going to pay for the extra credit hours required for teachers to take every 5 years for them to keep their certification? What prevents a district that can't afford to pay experienced teachers from turning over their staff every year with those annual contracts? How many careers will that potentially ruin. Remember on paper, Communism looked like UTOPIA.

Lets hope SB6 is vetoed! For that hope, and for Tom and Nancy (my former swim coach and his wife) I am dressing this blog in red tonight!

1 comment:

JennyMac said...

I love flowering trees too and thankfully have no allergies. Most of my co-workers are in serious allergy misery right now.