I have often used the following video, Building Airplanes in the Air by EDS when talking with teachers because they can relate to how difficult the job is.  Teaching can be as difficult, challenging and worthwhile, as building an airplane in the air. Teachers transform lives.  True, they teach about subjects, content, concepts, ideas, but the bottom line is that they educate children; the whole child. Teachers know this; non-educators do not.  And teachers are continuing to inspire and educate our youth despite the firestorm of recent public disapproval. They aren’t sitting around waiting for a superhero.  They have been not been inspired by Arne Duncan, the Race to the Top, legislation, their administrations, the fear of School Improvement and certainly not by the money.  Dedicated teachers are setting an example everyday of grace under pressure.  They are inspired by the promise of learning and the realization that they are entrusted with a year of each student’s educational lives.  They go about the business of educating and changing lives because it is a calling. Everyone can think of a teacher that impacted their lives.  Frequently people are asked, “Who was your favorite teacher?”  Teachers often become teachers because of a teacher they had that influenced them.

And so my message today on this National Blogging for Real Education Reform day, be on notice education naysayers. Educators are not distracted by the circus that legislators, non-educators, millionaires, and movies create and the media instigates.  We have a job to do, educate our children.  So while we can and will stand up for ourselves in the face of criticism and insist that educators know better than anyone about education; our focus will not shift from our students. No matter what legislators throw at us, how NCLB impacts us, or what public opinion may be, for teachers it comes down to two questions: Am I as inspirational as the teacher who changed my life?  And am I transforming lives?
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