On behalf of myself and the colleagues here with me tonight, Good evening.
My name is Amy Petersen and I am a teacher in the county. I am joined by Daniel Cheatham, Brittany Foster, David Wilson and Geri Douglas, all of whom are also teachers in Chesterfield and three of whom are graduates from Chesterfield schools.
We would first like to thank you for your dedication to beginning the recovery following the difficult cuts our school system has faced. We encourage you to stay on that course so that we may be able to recruit the best teachers in the future and hopefully start to lower class sizes soon.
What we would like to address here tonight is actually a bigger issue, namely the troubling wave of opposition to publicly funded endeavors. We have not only felt the sting of such views our hearts, but have also been agonizing over the impact it has had on our ability to serve the needs of our students. We fear that something very valuable is becoming lost in the madness and do not want the community we care deeply about to suffer from a misunderstanding of the value of publicly funded education.
There was a time not too long ago when public education was viewed as sacred. In fact, it was actually a Virginian by the name of Thomas Jefferson who created the notion that public education was a key component to the success of the new democracy called America. This idea would end up requiring a small bit of sacrifice from all taxpayers, but it would reap great rewards for the good of the country and the good of humanity. We fear that this basic understanding of the importance of public education for all in our democracy is being lost.
Over one hundred and fifty years ago a man by the name of Charles Dickens also felt that something had been lost, the Christmas spirit. He therefore wrote a story in order to wake people up from their misguided thoughts and to restore positive feelings surrounding a holiday that celebrated the notion of sacrifice for the good of humanity.
Teachers understand that a story can often shed light on a subject in a way that a mere lecture or speech cannot. And so, tonight, my colleagues and I would like to offer you a miniature recasting of Dickens' tale so that we may make our own wake-up call and strengthen the tradition of societal excellence created by community support for public services. We hope that despite some damaging national rhetoric, Chesterfield at least continues to keep its priorities straight.
I now turn it over to my colleagues to tell you the story.
(Daniel Cheatham)
THE CHESTERFIELD CAROL
Frieda Rider sat at her kitchen table drafting a letter to the editor. She had just received her property tax bill and she was livid. "How dare they charge me even one penny to educate those long haired punks. I didn't bring them into this world so why should I have to pay for them?" She went on and on until she grew weary and fell asleep right there at the table.
When the clock struck three, a ghost suddenly appeared. It looked like her high school English teacher, Mrs. Friendly. Frieda sat up and said, "Mrs. Friendly, what are you doing here?"
Mrs. Friendly patiently replied, "Follow me, dear."
They soon came to a classroom. It was Frieda's old high school science class and it was the day that had transformed her life. Her science teacher, Mr. Smart, had offered to help Frieda after school with a science experiment. That was when Mr. Smart encouraged Frieda to follow her passions and continue her study of science in college. Frieda's father had always told her that paying for a girl's education was a waste of money, but she never forgot how much Mr. Smart had believed in her. When her kids had gotten older and entered public school, Frieda felt like she could finally do what people of her father's generation spoke out against so strongly. She decided to go to college to become a scientist. Because of her strong public school foundation, she thrived in college and got a job that benefited her family, her community, and her soul.
The clock struck four and suddenly a new ghost appeared. Frieda said, "Don't I know you from somewhere?"
The ghost replied, "Yes, I am one of the teachers who got up at a community meeting last year to say that teachers needed some relief from all the stresses of unfunded mandates and budget cuts. Your objections won over the board and my body just couldn't take the stress of more cuts. Now I'm merely a ghost, here to show you what I had been trying so hard to explain to you."
Before them was a new classroom. The room itself looked pretty much like the one they had been in before but there were so many more students.
Frieda was confused. "What are all these kids doing in here, is there some sort of science fair going on or something?"
"No, Frieda," the ghost replied. This is one class. This is how things are in schools today. It wasn't long ago you could find many classrooms with only 15-20 students in them, ideal numbers for delivering a solid education. You don't see those much anymore. Now it's all too common to see 30-35, or more students, in a class. Let's follow this one into the hallway where they have to do their labs now because there isn't room to move in the classroom anymore."
(Brittany Foster)
Students weren't listening to a lecture or working on textbook exercises. They were examining current issues and applying their knowledge to solve real-world problems in collaborative groups.
The teacher had spent hours at home the weekend before organizing this experience for the students so that they would be prepared for a complex and fast-changing job market. Over the summer she had attended a conference, for which she had paid her own money, and she had read heavily in the scientific journals to which she subscribed so that she could stay current with the latest in her discipline. She also designed the lesson to cover the state-mandated Standards of Learning. In addition, she made sure that her special education students would get their accommodations met and that the AP students would be ready for the big test that was coming up in May, despite having a full month less to cover the material compared to students in other states due to the Kings Dominion law. She knew this kind of student-directed lesson would mean that she would be spending hours that night evaluating the students' lab reports, but she knew it was the best method for students to learn the critical thinking skills they would need. It was important to her that she give them timely and thorough feedback.
She would start working on all that grading as soon as she finished the mandatory paperwork on all her special education students, updated the school's online grade report and homework notification system, called some parents about discipline and grade issues, and did her mandatory online safety hazard training. And of course all that would happen after she concluded the science club meeting she sponsored for no compensation, went to a committee meeting on a drug prevention program being implemented in the school, and completed the financial paperwork for the robot supplies she needed to order, now that their big fundraiser was over, so that the robotics club could start working on their robot every Saturday until the big two-day competition.
Well, she couldn't dwell on that because her planning period was coming up and that meant that she had to get ready for her PLC according to the PGPPT goal she had set on meeting the IEPs during the AEP so that the school could meet AYP according to NCLB. Boy, if these things didn't have acronyms she'd never get all her work done! But of course, she would only get to all that after her lunchroom duty was over.
(David Wilson)
Frieda was mesmerized by how engaging this modern classroom was and wished she could be going to school these days. Not all the kids seemed to be engaged and some were texting each other by pretending to reach for a pencil in their backpacks. Frieda wondered how they couldn't be fascinated by the experiment their teacher had worked so hard to prepare for them, which paled in comparison to the lessons her dear old science teacher used to prepare. She felt bad for the teacher as she had to stop helping a confused student in order to attend to the misbehaving students. Frieda was about to give those students a piece of her own mind but all of a sudden the clock struck 5 and that modern day classroom disappeared.
When the clock struck its final tone, a young, frazzled woman ran up to Frieda.
"Who are you?" Frieda gasped.
"I'm the ghost of future teachers," she replied. "All the experienced, high quality teachers have abandoned the profession or retired early. All that's left are young teachers like me who didn't know what else to do with their lives or are just here until they can find something better. We come and go faster than a teacher's paycheck these days. No stability here.
The Board of Supervisors acted on the advice of those who didn't believe they should pay for public education and so now there are 40-45 kids in every classroom. There used to be more than that but a lot of people moved out of Chesterfield and nobody else wants to move here because the schools are so bad. That's why you see all those boarded up businesses along Hull Street. Amazon left town, too. Couldn't get any good workers they said."
"Want to see what happened to you?" asked the ghost.
"I don't know, do I?" Frieda replied.
(Geri Douglas)
The ghost showed Frieda her tombstone, which read 'Frieda Rider. She meant well, but didn't end well.'
"What's that supposed to mean?" Frieda asked.
"Well, you convinced enough people to argue against paying taxes, but you didn't realize the devastating effects of your obsession over cutting services and cutting taxes until it was too late. When the schools went bad and other social services were cut, crime escalated. The downsized police and fire departments couldn't handle it. Property values plummeted. You couldn't sell your house and were too scared to go outside. Family members that had left when the schools started to go bad refused to come visit. You died a very lonely woman. But all this could have been prevented if you had realized the value you were getting for your tax dollars.”
"Oh no, what have I done? I thought I was being a community hero for taking a stand against taxes. But really, I ended up hurting the community I cared about. I didn't mean it, really, I didn't. Please, let me go back, spirit. I can change."
But the spirit disappeared and the clock struck 6. Frieda put on her nicest outfit and ran out of her house and got into her car. She passed several school buses with sleepy kids and took a mental note that she ought to speak up for a later school start time at the next public hearing. But that would have to come later. Right now she was headed to the closest school to ask to volunteer. Then she would go home and prepare a speech for the Board of Supervisors that not only expressed her support for public education but even called on them to raise the tax rate so that she could help Chesterfield provide the best education possible to its students and beat out Henrico and Hanover and Fairfax and any other county in the nation as the county that cared for its schools and its teachers and its students the most. She knew it would bring good things to everyone in the community and so she ended her speech with "The strength of our community depends on us all, EVERY one."
