Bret Wooten, a businessman in a small town in Texas, was puzzled about why his wife, a second grade teacher, spent so much money on her students. At tax time, he reminded her that the purpose of working was to make money, not to rack up expenses that were not tax-deductible.
She invited him to visit her classroom. And he did.
“When I came by that next afternoon, I found myself surrounded by the children doing projects and I jumped right in. I dropped by the school as often as I could, so the children were used to me at this point. But one young man always kept his distance. After the kids had gone, I asked Michelle why. She then revealed her dark secrets, the histories of the children in her classroom.
“These kids endured everything from true poverty to sexual abuse. Her list of questionable deductions started to make sense: granola bars, orange juice, cereal, milk, jackets, band aids and endless school supplies.
“The young man that would not approach me? She told me about him last. He had endured the worst. All the men in his life injured this child in ways that still bring tears to my eyes and a rage in my soul.
“Then she said: “He needs shoes.”
“The only thing I could mutter was: “What size?”
“These days we think we will find the answer to so many questions within the pages of a book or the folds of a standardized test, but this is the reality of many children in America. I wish stories like this were on the news or touted by politicians.
“Unfortunately, acts of kindness are far too common in education and thereby deemed unnewsworthy. If these stories were aired, maybe we could actually solve some problems instead of just pointing them out.”
It’s a shameful rheephorm twofer:
1), Invent and go on a ceaseless campaign of spreading the lie that a great many—or almost all—public school teachers think that “poverty is an excuse for laziness and incompetence” so that
2), Rheephormsters can ignore the genuine contributions that public school teachers and staff make by dealing with the sorts of difficulties outlined in this posting.
Voilà! Now you can beat up on all those many teachers that provide hidden subsidies and social support to so many young people AND garner $tudent $ucce$$ at the same time!
I want to end on a positive note. In my personal experience I can testify that the heavyweights and enforcers and enablers of self-styled “education reform” have it backwards.
Exactly the sorts of things described in the posting spur teachers and other public school staff to do more, not less.
😎
Reblogged this on Politicians Are Poody Heads and commented:
And if the billionaires and politicians think that they can solve the problems in our schools by privatizing education, opening more charter schools, closing public schools and taking resources away from them, while ignoring the profound problems of poverty and what many of these kids face daily in their homes and neighborhoods, they are sadly deluded.
They only hear what they want to hear, and make it fit their own greedy agenda.
Help this story go viral, pls, thank you.
I wish the story of all of our great teachers went viral every day.
Shoes, clothing, boots, coats, gloves, hats. You betcha! Lunch money, snacks, fresh fruit. No question! Band aids, lip balm, tampons, deodorant, shampoo, body wash, soap. Without a second thought! Folders, paper, binders, pens, pencils. Of course! Kindness, love, support, confidence, boundaries, encouragement, praise, discipline, consistency. Unconditionally.
You sound like our kind of person! Keep up the good work.
Speciel Educatory in NY- All of those, plus curriculum materials and basic office supplies. Laminating sheets, file folders, paper clips, highlighting pens, tape, ink cartridges. Work books. Many, many work books.
My husband has asked me to give our credit card a rest.
He just needs another job:) Thank you for what you and your husband do. It make a difference.
I LOVE this! So many people in our lives just don’t understand until they actually meet the kiddos and see the lack of resources we are given. The teacher forums are filled with pics over the summer of the things teachers are buying for their kiddos with the tagline “just don’t tell my husband how much I spent!”. But it’s for a good cause.
As I read this my face just lit up. You should bring him, teach him a thing or two;)
The deep, dark secret of teaching: we love our kids, including the difficult ones who drive us crazy, because we see them as children who need a kind word and the reassurance that they deserve to be cared for. It’s what real teachers’ lives look like. Want proof? Ask teachers’ own children about their parents’ students.
Well said, Christine, well said!!
Oh my God I just love your smile! Thank you for what you do.
I can add nothing to this but
BEAUTIFUL. People really do care enough to try to make the world a better place
AND
that in the forefront are our educators.
Very true! I am glad you enjoyed it.
Thank you
We also live in Texas (San Antonio). My wife is a 4th grade teacher but I keep the books. I used to complain about the amount being spent (at least $1000/year) but no more. There is such a great need. And the basic curriculum needs a lot of enriching. So now I just consider it mission work. Now that our children are in college, I almost expect to find a needy (both emotionally and physically) child brought home.
I am cracking up right now! I also thought the same would happen to me. Thank you both.
And yet–and yet, so much time and money wasted on testing and test materials…we have really lost our way as a nation that we have gotten in this deep. Shovels for digging our ways back out needed asap–add to the list…
There is much hope! I believe it to my core. We just need to speak up and vote! They want you to give up. If all the teachers in this country actually voted in every election we would not even be having this conversation. They like super PAC money but they won’t get any of that if they don’t get elected.:)
Take care
Yup, our family has spent and is spending lots of $ providing exactly this kind of thing to inner city students. It is a shame on the nation that teachers and people who care about them have to do this.
Meanwhile, district administrators earn huge salaries. Many super wealthy people hire attorneys to help them pay far less on average, than people with much less income.
The toughest is when you just can’t help. You gotta step back and be objective. Otherwise, it will eat away and affect personal life, relationships, and health. Just way too much pain in Ohio no matter what Kasich and his band of merry sociopaths say about an “Ohio Miracle”.
And while the corporate public school reform demolition derby fraudsters are taking money out of the public education system to fatten their fortunes, those incompetent (not my words) public school teachers that must be punished for low test scores are spending, according to Forbes, an annual average of $513 out of pocket on classroom supplies, instructional materials and a lot more, and when some sociopath walks in on a shooting spree Bill Gates, Eli Broad, the Koch brothers, the Walton family in addition to those psychopaths from the Hedge Funds won’t be anywhere around to sacrifice themselves to protect the children.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nicoleleinbachreyhle/2014/08/19/teachers-spend-own-money-school-supplies/
How much do all the teachers spend each year out of their own pockets? 3.1 million teachers x $513 = $1,590,300,300 or more than $1.5 billion.
Let’s compare what all those teachers spend to what Bill and Melinda Gates offered back in 2014 to help fill teachers’ supplies wish lists.
“The Gates Foundation expect to contribute about $1 million to schools and teachers this way–but it’s willing to go over that threshold if enough projects get to the halfway mark. “Teachers have enough things to worry about right now,” writes Gates on his blog here. “Getting the right supplies shouldn’t be one of them.” Here’s a link to DonorsChoose to get started.”
Don’t forget what Gates wrote: “teachers have enough things to worry about right now,” and he’s right, because what Bill Gates is willing to spend—$5 – $7 billion—to implement his test and punish agenda is one he biggest worries teachers are dealing with right now.
Gates offers $1 million to teachers while he is spending billions to destroy their unions and their jobs in addition to the untold damage he’s going to cause millions of children.
You are right on target. All teachers get for their good deeds are politicians and billionaires trying cook up ways to deny young people access to strong public schools so they can divert much needed public funds into private pockets.
Correction, Lloyd–“the untold damage” he’s ALREADY caused & CONTINUES to cause.
As to Bret @ 9:21 PM, that’s why this retired teacher–along with many, many other (but still not enough) registered voters are working their hardest to get Bernie Sanders the Democratic nomination–he’s the real deal who will be the change all of us on this blog want to see. If we don’t work against the PACman/woman candidates, this work to best ensure public education & the future of our children will not only cease, but will become non-existent. In 2012, we were given the opportunity to vote for “the lesser of 2 evils”…& just look at what the Obama Administration has done to public education–put NCLB on steroids, increase “standardized” (NOT standardized–neither valid nor reliable–EVER)
testing, increase the number of charter schools in the U.S. (& give them unwavering praise, even in the face of their failures & exclusions), choose a beyond totally unqualified Secretary of Education because he is his “basketball buddy,” then choose another who was practically run out of New York State by both educators AND parents, etc., etc….ad. nauseum, & with emphasis on the nauseum part. And then, adding insult to injury to insult–a sham of a ruse of a sham–villainize (read Carl Bernstein’s 2007, A Woman in Charge–esp. pp. 168-179) teachers to the nth degree, by tying ill-gotten, juked (read Todd Farley’s excellent book, Making the Grades, 2009) test scores to teacher performance & THEN–as in L.A. Times–PUBLISH the names of “failing” teachers, so shaming one such teacher into depression & suicide.
Aren’t you all just sick of it all? Forget the Republicans–do we need yet ANOTHER corporate, Wall Street beholden DINO (Democrat-in-Name-Only) to give us yet ANOTHER year of “reform” (cleverly renamed “#teachstrong”)? Whatever you call it, I call it out. People, we have been given a REAL choice…a truly NO evil choice.
Yes, WE can. Send in the $28.11 (or $30). Pound the pavements, pass the petitions, make the calls–roll up your sleeves and DO THE WORK NECESSARY to GET BERNIE SANDERS THE DEM NOMINATION.
Because we finally have a choice. Bernie 2016.
I love the name. Love your passion!
Thank you for getting people to vote.
One thing I have noticed in this political race that I find very troubling is how little education is mentioned. Educators do not have the attention of those in politics.
A few million whispers is loader then any one speaking from the podium.
No, Bret, thank YOU & YOUR WIFE!
BTW–today, 80 members of our retired teachers group donated a trunk full of school supplies + another $250 cash (which will most likely be used for winter gear for kids), brought to a lunch where a presentation was made as to how to right the income inequality in our state to continue to provide public services & to create employment that will raise families out of poverty & will preserve the middle class.
Insofar as the current presidential race, I honestly think that–had the tragic events in Paris not occurred–the Sat. 11/14 Dem Debate would have included pre-k-12 education talk/teacher ed. We know that this “#teach strong” (I call it teach WRONG) seems to be coming from the Clinton Camp (Weingarten), & that this fine-&-dandy plan (not!) would have been trotted out Sat. night. Of course, everyone then would have heard where Bernie stands on ed. issues (he’d voted against NCLB & is definitely not pro-charter, & Diane has even posted on this blog “Is Vermont the Best Education State?” w/examples that show it could well be). He has been interviewed RE: his views on education (in an earlier post–on this blog or Fred Klonsky’s–the commenter Paul Hope gave us some Bernie quotes from an interview–& remember, Bernie gets MUCH less press than HRC). Just the fact that Bernie does NOT accept money from corporations, PACs, billionaires or millionaires speaks volumes–no “follow the money,” the phrase that constantly crops up on this site.
How wonderful!
What do you know, there are still amazing people on this earth and you are clearly one of them. I hear you load and clear on the political issues. I do truly believe in the goodness in people, (most people) and when those people hear stories like this, it moves them. Who ever wins the political race wont matter if educators don’t also win back owning their narrative. Our story is not special, it happens ever day in classrooms every where, but look at the response. It make us look special, we are not. I know many wonderful educators that should be very proud of what they do and they have wonderful stories that touch people they should share those stories. And take back their wonderful narrative.
Since I am “book hoarder” (thank goodness), I have given away about $5,000 worth of books to teachers in 2016. Public school teachers and public university professors who teach children’s and adolescent literature need BOOKS for their students. Included were also professional books.
To think that public schools spend money on screens and testing and not books is well…(fill in the blanks).
My community set up a “crayons to computers” store for teachers whose students qualified for free and reduced price lunches, the proxy for poverty. Corporations could get a tax deduction for contributing supplies and still useable equipment. I contributed some things at first, but three things made me stop.
The first are the tax abatements given to corporations that reduce school budgets and are not given oversight for the “promised” jobs and income taxes from the corporate beneficiaries. Corporate welfare on the backs of kids.
The second was the realization that corporations were dumping freebies generated for marketing campaigns. Many of the pencils, backpacks, bags and the like were walking advertisements for the companies or their products. The computers that were being donated were out of date and there was not enough talent to get them up and running. The store became temporary warehouse before the computers were sent to the certified recycler ( who charged a fee).
The third and full stop came when I contributed fossils and science books. The person who was putting them in the cart to take them inside was a volunteer who did not believe in science at all. That did it. I could not be sure that person would put the materials out for teacher use. I contibuted the materials to the nature center in our public park system.