Sticker Shock

In 2008 I began tooling around in a black Subaru Forester, a great and reliable little SUV. It replaced my gold colored Volvo XC-70 AWD wagon. I loved that car (until that pesky little oil leak arrived and decided to stay). My Volvo was truly mine-covered in stickers that represented places where I had fished, my love for dogs, and my devotion to one of my alma maters. But when I replaced the Volvo with the Subaru I decided it was time for my sticker worship to end, and so the only stickers to make the cut (so to speak) were my Michigan State Alumni Association sticker, and my US Luge sticker which I keep to honor my dear friend Jeff, a former slider and luge Olympic team coach. However, the whole 'no car stickers' thing was like a bad diet-you know it's going to end, and so it's really a matter of when and not if. I broke my vows with my Subaru when I decided to support Senator Obama over Senator Clinton, and I promptly found myself sporting an Obama '08 sticker on the back bumper of my previously pristine Forester. At the time I was convinced that showing my support through a little 'ol sticker for the man I was sure would be our next president was perfectly ok. He did, of course, become our president and today...today I took that Obama '08 sticker off the bumper of my car and today I stopped showing support for our president. You see I fully believe he has ceased to show any sort of support for me-as a member of the teaching profession anyway. Earlier today I read that in Los Angeles they are seriously considering publishing the full names of teachers who are deemed 'failures' based on their students' standardized test scores. Yes, full names of teachers-not the school's name. (Silly me-I thought Salem was just a tourist attraction these days!) President Obama's Secretary of Education Arne Duncan thinks this is a great idea. Now this is by no means the first comment from Secretary Duncan that made me see red for the entire day and I'm quite sure it won't be the last. But it's not Secretary Duncan I'm fed up with, I'm fed up with the man who chose him for that position. I'm sorry to say President Obama's rhetoric simply does not, in any way, match his actions. He says teachers are critically important. He says teachers are valued by him and his administration. He says he's working to reform education to make things better for students, teachers, and parents alike. He says quite a bit and does very little. He asked me and others to believe in him and his vision for change. I did believe in him, but apparently he can't bring himself to believe in me or the countless, tireless other teachers out there who also believed in him. Oh well, it was time for a clean bumper again anyway.