Congratulations to the CATE 2005 Conference Chairs, Michelle Berry and Linda Stockton, the conference committee, and the award winners for reminding us that the power of one teacher is a positive affirmation that demonstrates how our community of learners perpetuates the power of language. For four wonderful days we celebrated our profession and gloried in the chance to communicate and collaborate. We concentrated on the positive, but also addressed our concerns for the future. I returned to my classroom renewed, refreshed, and loved my students and my job more than ever. On February 12, I listened to the Governor’s radio address. I agreed with him that, “Our future depends on the quality of education we give our children today,” and “money for schools is terribly important.” However, I don’t agree with the “fine print” in the proposed initiatives, or the fact that teachers are not a part of the decision making process that will affect our profession and our students. I was shocked at the irony of “this is the battle between the children’s interests and the special interests.” Ladies and gentleman, the future has arrived, and some of our fears have become reality. We have a special interest in children, but I find it hard to believe that anyone would consider us a special interest group! In the past, I have written about taking charge of our professional discourse; however, in this issue the urgency for each voice to be heard is paramount. Ladies and gentleman, we can not let ourselves continue to become political, standardized, restructured, and budgetary pawns—we can’t let our students become victims as a result of our busy schedules, or our trust that others will speak for us, or even our own apathy. This is a call to make “teaching as a subversive activity” once again. This is a call for action.

I have always been comfortable with such organizations as CTA, CATE, affiliates, and NCTE speaking out for teachers and students. I felt comfortable “speaking” as part of an organization, and I couldn’t imagine how I might find the time to speak as an individual. In fact, I did not feel comfortable speaking as an individual. However, listening to Jackie Goldberg speak at CATE 2005 made me realize that my individual voice needs to be heard loud, clear and continuous now more than ever. Our governor’s initiatives have created an immediate call for action to every teacher in California. It is necessary for teachers to take charge of public discourse before the public (who might be swayed by flashy advertising and charisma) might vote on issues that will directly affect teachers and students.

I think that we all might agree that school reform is necessary, but we would like our authentic voices to be heard as part of any major decision making process. It’s all so confusing, isn’t it? The media airs both sides of this controversial issue; however, the commentary, facts, and dollar amounts are an antithesis of rhetoric. Who will the public believe? In her February keynote Goldberg said, “Education has always been political. The state needs 75,000-100,000 new teachers every year; yet, here is the Governor and his reforms such as merit pay, no defined benefit pensions, the possible suspension of Proposition 98 in any given year, financial cuts, and redistricting. We are trying to perfect the 19th and 20th century school system, when what we should be doing is trying to build the 21st century school system.” Precedents have been set in other states: Colorado has developed a potential merit pay system based on a Harvard research study, and Kentucky is considering merit pay based on job performance rather than longstanding factors, including experience and career longevity. Connecticut stands alone as it marches into court to challenge the present No Child Left Behind education policy.

In my experience, teachers have been treated as professionals with courtesy and respect. However, there is an ominous change in the air that I believe reflects the negative publicity resulting from standardization and miscommunication. Do the newspapers ever explain what the scores really mean? Does the public really understand the nature of standardization? I don’t think so. Instead, all of the problems have been aimed towards teachers, and budgetary cuts seem to start with us. The result of these standardized “truths” is a growing change in the way that we are treated by the public, parents, and by our districts. Some examples are: a six-year tenured teacher plans to quit because of constant parental abuse; a union newsletter calls attention to administrators who are secretly videotaping teachers with pejorative consequences; districts begin to pink slip teachers each June as a matter of yearly procedure; teachers begin to cannibalize on their peers by mudslinging to administrators who encourage such behavior; age discrimination to save money is more prevalent; the lack of resources is frightening; and no funding for staff development. When teachers discuss these issues with me, they always temper the negativity with positive affirmations about teaching and students. This is what we do best, but if we don’t actively join together, our profession will lose brilliant, creative beginning and experienced professionals. We can not allow the present initiatives to cripple educational funding and undermine teachers’ rights and working conditions. We can not allow the negativity to carry over into the classroom. We must continue to bring our best to each and every student.

We are not alone in our struggle. According to Jackie Goldberg we need to contact our legislators, the Curriculum Commission, the California State Board of Education often to personalize the impact of budget cuts and lack of resources in your school and community. As part of the Education Committee, she would like you to contact her weekly (visit speakoutca.org). If you are not sure who your representatives are, you can get that information by using your actual zip code plus the four-digit zip code at http://www.vote-smart.org/. Talk about it with your colleagues. Perhaps your department can formulate some kind of template for communication. Talk to your union. Find out how your position is represented. We can no long trust that school reform will include the voice of all stakeholders. Through the power of the pen, the power of one voice, the power of many voices, and the power of professional organizations we can create an educational system for the twenty-first century—an educational system that meets the needs of all of our students and supports all teachers.