Animal Farm

Have you ever finished reading something and immediately wanted to read it again?  I have read several books that I could read over and over again.  One of those books is Animal Farm. With many of the actions going on with some of our state education leaders, I am reminded of a scene from the book.

If you have never read the book, in a nutshell, the animals overtake the abusive old farmer and begin running the farm. The pigs establish themselves as the leaders very quickly and establish some rules.  One of the primary rules is "Four legs good, two legs bad." And the sheep are constantly bleating this mantra against their former biped masters for all to hear.  

As the book continues, the pigs wish to resume contact with man, but this rule is obviously a problem. During the night the rule is mysteriously changed.  Now it reads "Four legs good, two legs better!" By this time the pigs have taught themselves to walk on two legs and wear human clothes.  

It saddens me that our children are being used as political fodder for someone's re-election campaign. It also saddens and frustrates me that the rules are changed midstream just to benefit someone politically. What makes it even worse is the fact that the workhorses are being overburdened and underpaid. Even worse than that is that just like Boxer in Animal Farm, they continue to work late into the night and on weekends for the good of all.  Like Boxer, they work to exhaustion for horse feed while others continue to change the rules to suit their needs.

I for one am tired of the porcine elitist rule.  Get out of the house and earn your keep with the rest of us.  Quit dictating meaningless changes to the rules for your political gain and get back to what your job is about. 

Your job is to help teachers teach.  Your job is not to accuse teachers of being incompetent when they are the workhorses on which all of society depends.