Finding my way into the classroom took many years. Education was not my passion, but children were and have always been. It was important for me to grow up and find work that would be meaningful, challenging, and that I could lend my voice for the young and so often, voiceless.
Then, March 26th of 1999 the vision of what I wanted for others and myself took the back burner to what I wanted for the little guy that made me a mother. It was through my son that my passion for education-his education began to grow. The anxiety that came with finding a school I knew my son needed and deserved was both overwhelming and daunting. Children were constantly being moved and shifted from school to school with redistricting and rezoning. Consistency and structure is something ALL children need and deserve and I was going to insure that he got just that by getting into and staying at the same place, K-5th grade. So, I did the only thing I knew to do-find a job within the school system so that he could do just that.
It was through my job, as a teacher’s assistant that my own passion for education, the vision for my life’s work, , and my philosophy for life were born. I saw for the first time, in that position, the real struggles of our young learners: second language, poverty, absent parents, etc. and I realized then how sadly, we are given two chances in life: our first is through the family we are born into. If this family fails to meet our needs, we have one more opportunity: public schools. If our schools fail us-well, we all know the sad realities of this.
The only way I knew to make a difference with this-to truly make an impact was to become a teacher. I believed that through education, as an educator, I could use my voice-advocate for my children and their families-all the while providing the children the one true thing that matters most to their lives: education. There is no way I could’ve imagined back then after making the decision to go back to school to become a teacher that my voice would become silenced.
In 2013, NC passed a law that restricts me of ever earning career status. This means that for the remainder of my career, I will be on a yearly contract. This contract directly impacts my decision to speak openly about the issues I see day in and day out in our school building and education as a whole in our state. As an educator, I feel it is my duty and obligation to speak on behalf of my students and families I serve, especially when their educations are compromised by inequitable funding-resources made available to them.
Each and every child in this state-county deserves a voice-an advocate. Many of those that need voices most are the ones who continue to go unnoticed-neglected and left far behind. It is through each voice that the collective “we” make and initiate change. Change is necessary. In education, we need to ensure that the changes put into place are always made in the best interest of the children we serve. And when initiatives are put into place that we know does not best serve our children, being on the front lines, we should be able to speak out against them. We cannot be silenced! We cannot continue to be afraid of speaking out against the injustices we see day in and day out. This law that was passed, does just that! Many of us sit behind it in fear, because we too have families to feed and bills to pay. For every teacher that sits silent, we also silence the voices of the twenty plus children and their families we serve.
~Wendy Kauffman is a teacher in Wake County