"When we are powerless to do a thing, it is a great joy that we can come and step inside the ability of Jesus." Corrie Ten Boom

March 29, 2012 This morning it was raining. The cats ran in and out of the house, wanting to be outside but not wanting to get wet. Scout slept peacefully in his little bed. I slept well last night. I was tired at the end of the day. Too tired to read before going to sleep. I checked my email to this morning,then my blog. The babies and I ate breakfast, as I made plans to run one errand toward the noon hour. I received an email from my friend Kathy. It is always good to hear from her. She and her family went on vacation during Spring Break. I am happy to report they had a great time and returned home safely. I miss working with her. We shared a classroom the last year I taught. I enjoyed my daily professional interactions with Kathy. She was working on a master’s degree, which she has now earned. Kathy has been a beacon of strength for me in this time of professional indecision. I do not plan to return to teaching. After much soul searching, I believe I would like to pursue a career in another field. Teaching for me, use to be fun. Now with all of the stress and pressure to produce a generation of test takers with high scores, teaching focused on the best interests of the students, has fallen by the wayside. No Child Left Behind should be thrown out. Standardized testing should give way to producing a generation of students with a job related skills that will help them secure gainful employment. Skills should be measured in terms of how well they are applied in actual hand-ons, real life situations. With the advancement of computer technology in everyday life, academics such as math, can be embedded into the computer training programs with direct application of math skills and critical thinking skills to the tasks at hand. Our country has outsourced valuable middle class computer technology jobs to foreign countries, pays dirt poor wages to those people in underdeveloped countries, neglecting the people in their own country. One American computer manufacturing company overseas was recently investigated for its hiring practices, has such a high suicide rate, they have nets hanging outside of the windows to catch employees who attempt to jump to their deaths . The hours the company works these people are long, living arrangement is limited to small rooms shared by several people, many of who work hundreds of miles away from their families. Their wages are very low. The outsourcing of these American jobs to foreign countries does not improve the quality of life for the workers in that country. Their labor is simply exploited. Out sourcing only robs the America work force of its dignity and livelihood. I remember an America where delivering milk to homes was considered an important job. Blue collar workers were once the backbone of the American economy. Now, these once noble workers are standing in unemployment lines, unable to get work in their own country. Our country’s greatness was stripped from us when manufacturers realized a quick buck could be made by sending valuable American jobs to other countries. Another real tragedy of the recent decline in the American economy is the Reduction in Force in education. Teachers are losing their jobs. Their careers are being taken away from them because there is no money to pay them. They are forced to collect unemployment or change career fields. Whoever thought that in America, teachers of all people, would be standing in unemployment lines looking for work? There was a generation of women, a one time, who were told to get a teaching career in college because they would always have a job, if they ever returned tothe work force once their children were grown. Not anymore. I wonder how the people who laid these teacher off sleep at night? Fellow educators thrown aside by campus administrators for what? To impress the central office powers that be? And how do they sleep at night? One day, they too, will be deemed no longer useful, and suffer the fate as the educators they have laid off. Or, maybe it will be their children who will suffer the same fate as the educators their fathers or mothers laid off. Don’t think for a minute that you will not be held accountable for your actions at some time in your lifetime or when you too, cross over and have to explain to Jesus what you did to your fellow educators. "Don't bother to give God instructions;just report for duty." Corrie Ten Boom