Are You Prepared to Sacrifice?

 In previous posts I mentioned many issues future parents should address before the baby pops out. The following is a speech I wrote that is being presented Monday, Apr. 14, to the North Carolina General Assembly. I'm not about sharing everything I do with the world (you won't see me posting my dinner creations on Facebook), but  the speech, while it focuses on the state of educator pay in North Carolina, addresses the fact that parents must make sacrificial decisions for the safety and support of our families. My challenge would be to read it and to think about what sacrifices you should be making. Feel free to share with others.

North Carolina General Assembly

I’d like to take a teacher moment and have everyone close your eyes.. Now that your eyes are closed, remember a time in your childhood where you had a great dream or vision for your future. Think about that dream, and picture those individuals who played the greatest roles in helping you reach that dream or who encouraged you to never give up on that dream. Now open your eyes.  I’ll be honest, even though I grew up in Colorado, I dreamed of playing basketball at Duke. There was one problem...I never grew past 5’9”, could never come close to touching the rim, and while I was the starting point guard my senior year of high school, I was given the “RED LIGHT” when it came to shooting the basketball. None of those circumstances helped me to fulfill my dream, but they never stopped me from pushing myself on and off the court. And you know who else it didn’t stop--my teachers and coaches. It was my  eighth-grade teachers who took a group of hormonal, independent middle school students to Washington D.C. every year, all the way from Colorado Springs.  It was Mr. Paige whom I had for two classes in high school and knew I was a horrible test taker, but who never treated me any differently from those straight A, high flying AP students who always scored 5’s on those formidable AP tests. It was Coach Andrusyk, who even though we didn’t see eye-to-eye on everything, stopped me in the locker room after the last senior basketball game and said, “I’d want a son like you,” when I told him I was sorry for the mistakes I made in the game and for not leading the team to better success. When you think about what you just imagined, I’m sure many of your dreams were positively affected by the many educators in your life.  Unfortunately, today’s society is minimizing these roles teachers play in students’ lives, and North Carolina is leading the way.

    My story, like so many other teachers’ stories, started in high school where I felt called to be a teacher. I majored in English Education in college and moved from the great state of Colorado to North Carolina because I was young, because I could, and because like so many other first-year, bright-eyed teachers I thought I could “change the world.” For my first two years I taught 7th grade Language Arts in Charlotte at a school with 90-95% free-reduced lunch. Looking back on that extremely difficult situation, the greatest tragedy was that pay was so minimal that all the experienced teachers either left the school or refused to consider working there as the minimal pay did nothing to ease the stress of such a challenging teaching situation...and this is still the case today with so many North Carolina schools, even the strong ones. Even as a young teacher with no family responsibilities and with all the energy in the world, I went went home each day worn out, struggling to keep fighting the battle, learning what it was like living paycheck to paycheck. I then married my wife, an elementary teacher, moved to Holly Springs, taught English, and coached track at one of North Carolina’s top high schools,  Apex High School, for eight years, all while adding three wonderful children to the mix. We attended and were involved in a great church and developed many lifelong friendships. What could be better?

    On the surface, and to the outsider, things looked great, but there’s more to the story. With three children, it didn’t make sense for my wife to work so she has stayed at home, often working part-time jobs she could do from there. While I earned my Master’s of Education degree and while our mortgage payment was equivalent to apartment rent and while we had no debt, my salary was frozen for six years, our health insurance rose about $200 a month, and gas prices ranged from $2.50 -$4.00. And, while I loved coaching, often times sacrificing family time to do what I felt God called me to do, based on finances I was ready to walk away from it since coaches pay in North Carolina is one of the lowest, if not the lowest, in the country. While I would leave behind the impact coaches have on athletes, I could work fewer hours, with much less stress, at other part-time jobs that would give our family better financial stability.  As a result, like so many other teachers, my family qualified for Medicaid. Now, my intent is not to knock down government aid, but I taught for ten years and hold a Master’s degree. No other professional field can boast such pay to qualification discrepancy. Furthermore, my teaching responsibilities became greater and greater with the focus on standardized testing, with the addition of technology requirements, and with the focus of teacher evaluations being directly tied to and influenced by student test scores. On top of that, while I spent eight years teaching at what I would argue to be one of the top public schools not only in the state but also in the country, I have seen a consistent decline of teacher and administrative morale, even though administration has done all it can to carry the burden the state has placed on the teachers.

    Therefore, when I was unexpectedly offered a job in Ohio, where my wife’s family lives, and to where I swore I would never move, we moved, even though the job turned into part-time. Everybody here in the cornfields can’t believe we moved from NC to Ohio, and while we moved for many reasons, one contributing factor was the degrading pay in North Carolina.

Is this the teachers’ fault? For a small few, yes. Is it the Administrators’ fault? Again, for a small few, yes? However, every leadership training I have attended and every leadership book I have read makes clear that the state of the employees’ morale is a direct reflection of the company’s leadership, and the company for the teachers is the North Carolina Government. My goal is not to point fingers or to create dissension, but rather for leadership to take responsibility to affect change.

    Rather than worrying about living from paycheck to paycheck, worrying about how to pay for medical bills, and worrying about how to make the next mortgage payment, educators need be focused on our jobs. Instead of spending countless hours fighting for respect, we need to engage in healthy debates over whether or not teaching Shakespeare is really relevant to today’s students. Rather than spending hours upon hours jumping through the hoops to qualify for government assistance, teachers should be evaluating how necessary it is for all students to know quadratic formulas, parabalas, and the differences between substitution and elimination. Rather than struggling with the decision to leave the teaching profession in order to find more financial peace and stability, teachers should be dialoguing over whether or not we should be teaching as if we expect all students to go to college.

    Teachers teach to positively affect young people’s minds and to give hope where often there is no hope. We teach because we feel called and challenged to “change the world.” We need our North Carolina leaders to hear that call. We need to stop fighting the party battle, as both parties are equally to blame for the current state of teacher morale, and we need YOU to rise to the challenge as we expect our students to rise to the challenges we give them and as you expect us rise to the challenges you give us!

Mon. Apr. 14
1:30 North Carolina General Assembly in Raleigh

Man Advice

Suck it up and be willing to put selfish desires aside to be there for your family.