Politics...

I have always felt that the one place politics should take a back seat is in the world of education. It has been my opinion that people who work in the education field should be working for the children and nothing else. It's why I love my ELL job. As I walk out of my class each day, I know that I have imparted knowledge on a group of children who value and appreciate what I have taught them. As a teacher, I teach children, that's the key word children, how to speak and read English, regardless of their status in this country, because I am a teacher.

I went into teaching to teach, not to voice my opinions on who to teach. I knew going in that in order to remain an effective teacher to this particular group, I would need to be evaluated on my effectiveness. It was the only effective policy that came out of NCLB, garanteeing teacher effectiveness through maditory evaluation. I am ok with this, because I am a teacher. Even in my brief stint in the corporate world, jobs are easily dismissed if you do not meet your goals in an evaluation. Hence, the point of an evaluation - to evaluate the job and decide if the job has been fulfill.

Therefore, It boggles my mind that my county that I so very much enjoy working with would endeavor to get rid of a superintendent not base an evaluation of his work in the county, but based on the political ramblings of a small minority group of people in the county. We are a county that strives for excellence in education, and strive to live bove the line (don't ask). To believe that a county strives to uphold the illusion of fairness and justice by issuing a character education plan of "living above the line," and then fails misablely to actually set the example is laughable.

Thanks, Sumner County.