First a few disclaimers:
1. I lived in Tulsa, OK for seven years, four in college and three as a professional educator.
2. I student taught at Union High School. I also student taught, subbed, and taught my first two full years in Jenks HS and the Freshman Academy.
3. I never visited schools in other parts of the state.
4. It has been 17 years since I lived in Oklahoma.
It is important that I mention those things because my experience in Oklahoma education is limited to seven years in two districts almost two decades ago. I may romanticize my memories of my first few years because time does that. All that said, here are my thoughts.
I love the way Oklahoma divides its districts. After moving back to NC, I have held up the Oklahoma model as an ideal to others. Wake County, the largest district in NC is huge and spread all over the map (I mean, snow days here are weird because it can be 65 degrees in one part of the Wake County district while there are still treacherous snow conditions on the other side. If you have drastically different weather in different parts of the same district, it's probably a sign that your district is too big). As a result of the size of districts here and the explosion of people moving here because they saw Wake County on some kind of "best places to. . . " list, we are in a constant mode of reassignment. As a result, no student in Wake County has the security of putting down roots and developing spirit. After teaching in Tulsa and seeing kids who, unless their family moved, were Jenks Trojans from kindergarten through graduation, I have loved this model. At the time I lived there, most districts had 7-8 elementary schools which fed into 3-4 middle school, which all fed into one high school. Now, that was one big high school (about 3000 students), but the school spirit of the community was amazing.
I have always been grateful that I started my career at Jenks. I'm sure I have referenced Stephen Matthews on this blog before. He was my first principal, and I couldn't have asked for a better trainer in my first few years. He corrected my boneheaded rooking mistakes me without making me feel like a failure. He encouraged me to try things I really didn't have time to do but didn't overwhelm me with expectations of perfection in all areas. He was awesome, but he wasn't the only one. Because of the district's size and layout, the superintendent, Kirby Lehmann was able to tour schools frequently. He personally walked into my classroom four times in the two years I taught there. He met with every new hire for a twenty-minute discussion of educational philosophy. Just before I moved back here, I approached him at a book fair to ask him something. When I introduced myself, he said, "I know who you are. I know you are leaving, and I don't like it." Let me assure you that this does not happen in Wake County. The superintendent when I was there was named Bill McNeil. Here's what I know about him. 1. He was African American, which I only know because of the times I saw him on the news. 2. He didn't like the responsibility of calling snow days. He knew half the people would be mad at him no matter what. That's it. That's all I know. With thirty thousand employees in the district, that's all I could have ever known.
Funding in Oklahoma has changed. Eighteen years ago, I was in a well-funded district. I never lacked for anything in the years I taught at the Jenks Freshman Academy. If I needed a chemical or piece of equipment, we usually had it. If we didn't, no one turned me down when I asked to order it. My books were brand new because I came in at the beginning of a textbook cycle. While teacher pay was something like 48th in the country, the cost of living in Tulsa was so low that I had plenty of expendable income as a young, single teacher. Keep in mind disclaimer #3. My experience in this one district may not have been representative of the entire state, even at the time.
I understand that now, teachers are dealing with crumbling books, broken chairs (or just not enough of them), art supplies so scarce that teachers are soaking old markers in water to make watercolors, and that they have class sizes in the mid-thirties. Some districts are so broke they are only holding class four days a week. That might seem fun to you as a student if you didn't still have to learn all the same curriculum in twenty percent less time. The photos below were posted on Twitter to show the extent of the problem (and I didn't cherry pick two, there were scores of similar shots). I know that no legislator would want to sit in this chair every day or try to hold one of these books together in order to read them.
Oklahoma teachers haven't had a raise in a decade. Most news stories I read mention that before the walkout, teachers in Oklahoma were given a raise but that it wasn't as big as they wanted. Setting aside the oversimplification for a moment that pay raises and funding classrooms aren't the same thing, consider this. Would you work the same job for ten years without so much as a cost of living increase? In the past ten years, teaching got harder. Teachers have had to implement Common Core, deal with testing, deal with kids on social media and parents who use the convenience of digital communication as a reason to complain way more than they would have if it weren't so easy. They have more responsibilities, including the thought they might have to be responsible for the safety of children in an active shooter scenario. All the while, the cost of everything from gasoline to food to housing has increased. Oklahoma teachers have not gotten more money as costs have risen. When I lived in Tulsa, my apartment was $300 per month (which was low even 19 years ago). That same one bedroom apartment is now $600 per month. If your housing cost doubled in twenty years, but your salary didn't change in ten of those years, would you be okay with getting some at the last moments before a walkout?
Oklahoma teachers (like all teachers) want what is best for their students. I have not read one tweet, post, or blog from any teacher who wanted to walk out and looked forward to these days off. I've seen a lot of discussion about how much they miss their students and can't wait to see them again. Some are grading papers while sitting at the Capitol. Others are holding class on the Capitol lawn. Students have even come to OKC to protest alongside their teachers. These teachers are not doing something because it is easy. They are doing it because they honestly believe it is right. They want to go back and say that these two weeks were worth the investment in your future. Even if you disagree with walking out, you have to respect that. Here are some of the people I love and respect most with their kids at the Capitol.
I don't know if these muddled thoughts clarified anything for you as a reader, but here's my conclusion: I don't believe in walkouts, but I do believe in what they are walking for.
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