(This post is part of a series related to the VIVA/NEA 360° Report. See an overview here.)

By Enid Hutchinson.

I became a teacher because growing up I loved my teachers, and, I loved working with children. When I was growing up, teaching was a profession that was respected and honored by parents, students and the community. I couldn’t think of anything else I’d rather do than work with children, make a positive difference in their lives and be appreciated for it. I believe God placed this desire in my heart.

However, by the time I graduated and began working, nothing could prepare me for the reality I was about to face. No college course could’ve taught me how to teach 6 classes a day AND “juggle” all the ins and outs, politics and additional daily responsibilities of teaching, grading, parent teacher conferences, faculty meetings, standardized testing, handling behavior problems, work emails, checking daily homework and classwork assignments, and the list goes on. In fact, teaching became more about implementing new policies in my classroom each year, teaching kids to pass standardized tests and learning how to use the new textbooks and scripted lessons the district wanted me to use to teach my classes.

Each year as a teacher I felt less and less valued, less and less empowered, less inspired, less appreciated, blamed for most things and even less in control of the safety of my career. Even though I felt this way, I was told by many teachers over the years to keep my head down, don’t complain, don’t say anything, keep your mouth shut, make lemonade out of lemons, and be thankful you have a job. It seemed that they key to a successful teaching career was based on how well administrators liked you. I told God that if He ever put me in a position where I could have a VOICE where I could be an advocate for teachers I would not abuse that privilege.

After 15 years of teaching and trying to keep up with each new educational policy I was responsible to implement by law makers who never set foot in a classroom, I received an email from NEA/VIVA to answer a few questions about concerns in education today. Wow. To me, it was a small cathartic opportunity to say what I have been wanting to say for many years without fear of retaliation and I took it, never really thinking anyone would read it, care about what I said, or that anything would come of it.

Amazingly, I was chosen to be a part of the VIVA 360 writing collaborative group to represent 945 teachers’ voices from across our nation representing the state of Florida! I volunteered to be the lead writer on a topic that was near and dear to my heart, TEACHER EVALUATIONS. I felt this was a blessing from God. I was thrilled, knowing I had 15 years of teaching experience and knowledge to share in the only way I knew how to say it: real and uncensored. What rang true in the emails from the teachers across our nation was that teachers felt the evaluation process was punitive, unfair to be evaluated and rated by checklists and standardized test scores, teachers had no voice, and couldn’t challenge administrator ratings. Teachers want autonomy to create their own lesson plans, and use resources they are inspired to use for lesson planning in the classroom. Teachers want to be in control of their own individual professional growth, and submit documentation of that growth as their summative evaluation for the year to preserve and protect their careers from administrators who use evaluations for personal agenda. I was excited and honored to communicate this message.

I got to work with brilliant talented teachers from across our nation. I was flown to our nation’s capital to speak to the NEA about the positive changes in education today that our nation so desperately needs. The process was amazing. It was a true privilege and honor to work with caring, passionate teachers who prioritized preserving authentic teacher voice. It was a labor of love, all the hours and personal time to put together the document and presentation for the NEA Accountability Task Force.

It wasn’t until the plane ride home that I actually got to see the PRINTED REPORT of our work that was passed out to the NEA Task Force members. Tears rolling down my face, I searched and searched for the teachers voices that I slaved hours over to perfect in Recommendation 5 on Teacher Evaluations. Gone. Paraphrased. Deleted. NOT THERE. It read like a watered down boring textbook read, no longer capturing and representing what authentic teacher voices were trying to communicate to the NEA. I felt defeated, robbed and used. All of that time and effort for nothing. I was devastated that the people who had the ability to create positive change for our education system prioritized their own ideas/agenda regardless of what the teachers from across our nation were actually saying.

Where do we go from here? We need to create avenues of communication so that authentic teacher voices can be heard by those who need our expertise, guidance and knowledge. We are the experts and our voices need to be heard, speaking the truth without fear on issues in education today! Liaison positions need to be created where “liaison teachers” can act as a communicator for teachers to district board members so they can hear our ideas and concerns. Otherwise, we will continue to be run over with high stakes testing companies who make money off of our children. Administrators will continue to have unfair dictatorship power over a teacher’s career. Teachers will continue to be blamed for everything. Teachers won’t be paid what they truly deserve.

I want my voice as an educator to be valued. I want to go to work each day knowing I am in control of my own career and professional development, not based on standardized test scores and subjective administrator ratings. How I long to go back to 1975 when teachers were respected, honored and trusted as competent professionals who do the job they were educated to do: TEACH.