Open Letter to the Cary Community: Support Our Teachers

Dear friends and neighbors,

I speak to you today not as “Drew Madigan,” but as a concerned parent.  Even though I am a teacher in another district, my only skin in this game are my two boys who will be in the Cary schools for the most important developmental period of their lives.

Since beginning these rants and getting involved in this issue, I knew that I was putting myself out there.  I wasn’t sure it was even something I wanted to do at first.  However, the stakes were too high, in my opinion, to remain silent.  And so I began speaking up in a very public way.  Just in a matter of a week, this website has received over 2,200 hits.   I was no longer silent, watching from the sidelines.  If I were to take shots at public figures, I knew I should expect shots in return.  That is the nature of politics.  I have experienced this before several years ago when I publicly criticized a board member in District 214 who was bent on banning books.

Let me be clear:  I have nothing against members of the board personally.  Each of them have family and children as well. They, too, want what’s best for their families.   I question their decisions, however.  I question their ability to effectively run a school district.  I question that they have my children's best interest at heart.  I fear what may happen to this community as a result of their decisions.

Some people are angry, there is no doubt about that.  All you have to do is read the online comment sections of the newspaper.  The few who are the most vitriolic truly do not understand what is at stake.  This misguided anger is projected most fervently on those who teach our children, as if all of the problems this community faces are because of them and them alone.  The assumption is made that teachers have it easy.  That they are “greedy.” Several people have commented that teachers live a “lavish” lifestyle.  Really?  Come over to my $219,000 house if you believe that.  And that was before the housing market crashed.

The Cary teachers are just like you.  They live in the same kinds of houses that you live in.  The same neighborhoods.  The same community.  In fact, these are the people to whom we entrust our children every day.  Because they are teachers, we expect something more of them---perhaps more than we expect of our neighbors.  That is because they have taken on a very important job:  to teach our kids. But not just our kids, but our neighbors’ kids, too.   We praise our children when they do well, but sometimes forget all that went into making that child live up to his or her potential.

It is a job I love.  I know I am lucky each year when school starts to have those kids in my class.  And I consider it a challenge every year to try and reach them, to get them to better themselves and push themselves to the fullest extent of their ability.  Sometimes I’m successful.  Sometimes not.  But each year is a challenge to which I look forward. 

Most teachers will tell you the same thing: it’s not just a job.  It’s a passion.  It’s a calling.

But, in times like this, people so quickly dismiss that calling.  “Anyone can do that job,” they say.  Really?  These are the people who teach our children to count.  To read and write so that teachers like me, in later grades, can carry them elsewhere.  But it is these teachers who start that work.  They build the foundation.

We live in a middle class community.  With all of the comments that I have received over the last week, it really seems to me that some people are upset that teachers are members of the middle class.   If we want teachers to live in the same community then we must be willing to accept what it takes for that.  There are hard decisions that must be made, that is for sure.  The teachers must be willing to give some things up. 

And they have. 

At what point do we turn our backs on them and give into the desire to cast blame? Remember, what happens in the schools happens to all of us as a community.  Like it or not, our schools very much affect the value of our property.  Real estate agents will tell you that one of the biggest attractors to a community are the schools.  In markets like this we cannot let our schools fail.  We must ask ourselves:  do we really want a community that our teachers cannot afford to live in?

Because that is what is happening before our eyes.  By implementing their “last, best offer,” the board is forcing unprecedented terms upon our teachers.  Our neighbors.

If this is the type of community you want, by all means support the board.  But please don’t complain when the Cary school district becomes one of the obstacles to selling a house. 

In the next week, much is going to happen. I hope everything works out and my kids have an awesome year in school.  I hope that both sides are able to sit down at the negotiating table and work things out.  

But in order to do that, the board must be willing to give as well. 

In the end, the people who help our children learn to read, who push our children to take risks and strive to do their best in a classroom are not just any teachers.

They are our teachers.

And they deserve our support.

Sincerely,

Bruce David Janu