Hope for the Holidays by Mary Jane

Guest post by Mary Jane - please lend her a hand!

Hope for the Holidays

Mary Jane C.

This is my 32^nd year of teaching. Many changes have occurred in education during my watch – many of them not for the better. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job. I look forward to going to work every day. Nothing thrills my heart more than watching a child discover the love of reading. When asked to think about hope for the future of education, several young women who work at my school immediately came to mind. I teach in rural South Carolina. Our school has seven teacher assistants and three mentors. (Mentors are paid even less than assistants but have no extra duties and cannot be in a classroom without a certified teacher.) Four of these ten women are going back to school to become certified teachers. All four of them have young children at home. They work all day, and then try to juggle classes and family responsibilities at night and on the weekends. Why? Each of them wants to make a difference in the lives of children. All of these women will make wonderful teachers. I would be proud for any one of them to take over my classroom. Do I have hope for the future of education? Absolutely! This post is part of the MAT@USC Hope for the holidays event. Did you have an experience or witness something in 2009 which gave you hope for the future of American education? If so, please see this post for more information on how to share it.