In Charlie Brown words..."ARGH!!!!!!!!!"

So it's Wednesday and it's been...one of those weeks. I know-the week isn't done, so that should tell you something right there. This day happened to be a busy day on top of the lousy week-start of the new trimester, blah, blah, blah. At 7:00 p.m. I was in the midst of my down time (I'm allergic to beer so it can never be Miller time, but you get the picture). On the radio was NPR's program Tell Me More, hosted by Michele Martin. Ms. Martin's first half hour was a response to President Obama's recent speech on the state of public education where he highlighted some of his proposals, which included the always controversial suggestion for teacher merit pay. Ms. Martin's program featured Washington DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee, a Washington Post education policy writer, and a University of Texas professor of education who were all so politically motivated I felt like I was at a Republican rally before the beat down given to them by the Democrats in 2006 and 2008. So Ms. Martin introduced Chancellor Rhee as someone who is "in the trenches." Really? Seriously? This woman has a driver, an office, a staff, sees students when she wants to see students, and is completely in charge of her daily schedule. Me? I'm a teacher-my day starts at 7:30 (I drive myself to work in case you're wondering), I have one hour of "prep" time, I time my bathroom visits carefully because I have to, I see about 110 students per day, I end my day at 2:45, and I bring work home on most nights. I AM IN THE TRENCHES. It would be different if people like the NPR host would at least acknowledge the fact that the folks on her program are not representative of the professionals in the field of K-12 education, but that's never the case. Deference is always given to those folks who chose not to be teachers-to get out and pursue loftier administrative goals after 2, 3, maybe 5 years of teaching- tops. I'm not bitter-I love what I do. But I am angry at those folks-the ones who don't teach and would have a hard time defining what that word means- because they are the ones who are working hard to take away my tenure, my academic freedom, my middle-class existence, and my status as a professional. Oh, they talk about the professionalization of teachers-in Orwellian language. I'm truly scared of what the future of education looks like-the Washington Post journalist called Rhee and the guys in charge of non-profits like KIPP the new "brat pack" of education. He claimed Obama was speaking directly to them and encouraging them to keep up the great work. Forgive me, but I am a child of the 80's-meaning I've already lived through one brat pack consisting of Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe and Judd Nelson and from what I remember that time in history isn't really pretty. Howl On.