Wednesday, March 28, 2018... I marched with hundreds of teachers for RedforED. In the link you will hear a short glimpse as to why the teachers at marching... One of the teachers I interviewed stated she was sick and tired of driving for uber every weekend just to support her family. Another teacher said his wife divorced him because she was tired of supporting the two of them. Yet another teacher spoke to me, and said she just recently had to quit because her daughter got cancer and she couldn't pay for the chemotherapy on the salary of a teacher and another said she was sick and tired of paying out of pocket for her children to have classroom supplies needed for her lessons. Sadly, I interviewed about 10 different teachers, and all of which were struggling do to the lack of funding in one way or another. I was shocked... I knew that the pay teachers were receiving was lower than low, and I also knew (from experiences throughout high school) that teachers truly paid out of pocket to supply us with pencils, paper, notebooks, new books for reading in class, new textbooks, desks, and so forth. However, I had no idea the extent and the struggle teachers truly were facing.
On the way to the capital, men and women working in the capital and in other businesses working around the capital were getting off of work. Some knew what the march was about, but none knew the real reasons why nor the extent of the issues. Some teachers stopped to explain, others kept on going. This really put into perspective for me how little people who aren't involved in education know about what was going on and the ignorance they had on the issue.
If there's one thing I learned it's that teachers are marching for change. It isn't because they are selfish nor because they just want to be paid more - there is so much more to it than just that. In fact, teachers are marching for their students and for people like me who are trying to get into the teaching profession.
People every single day ask me why I haven't changed my major from education. "Why teach when you could have a job that pays better?" "Why teach when you could do something more important?" My position on teaching hasn't changed even the slightest bit. In fact #RedforED has only made it stronger. I want to beat all odds and just teach... I may struggle, but I still plan to do all I can and for the STUDENTS. At the end of the day, it's all for them and for all future generations - they deserve just that.
Below is the link to the video of my interview, along with a few other images, and my post on #RedforED
