May 5 - Teacher Appreciation Day

May 5 is Teacher Appreciation Day.

We have outstanding teachers in the Genesee School District. They are well qualified, appropriately state-licensed and highly qualified as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Perhaps, more important, our teachers, and all of the staff who work for the school district, care about students and our community.

These are dedicated employees who work hard to prepare all of the students for success. Being a public school, we do not have the opportunity to select our clients. We take everyone who walks through the doors and work diligently to provide each student with an education that meets the needs of the individual student and society.

American schools, and thus our educational professionals, are often compared to those from other countries such as Japan, India and China. One huge difference between our educational system and their systems is that ours is egalitarian. All students attend the same school regardless of innate ability and knowledge. In the United States we believe all students can learn and all students must learn to insure that our democracy flourishes. In public school, we do not send the brightest to one school and the average to another. We want them to learn together so that, as a society, we can all share in the benefits of our democracy. Comparisons are never "apples to apples."

It is interesting to note that when parents are asked to "grade" their school they always seem to give it a higher grade than the schools in the next town or down the street. Generally, parents appear to be satisfied with the job their schools are doing. That is not to say that we should not continue to seek improvement. Schools will change as society changes and we must constantly be willing to reform so that we are looking forward and not backwards. We can ill afford to live with success made yesterday.

Working with students day in and day out is satisfying but tiring work. Students sometimes bring "baggage" from outside of school that we have no control over yet we must educate all children regardless of what each brings to school on a daily basis. We do so with enthusiasm and hope.

So if you get a chance, thank your child's teacher, bus driver, classroom aide, cook, secretary, principal, etc. They care and they do their job every day so that your children's future will be bright.