What Would You Say To Margaret Spellings?

In the July/August edition of Edutopia’s “Sage Advice” section they ask the question: You’re sitting next to U.S. education secretary Margaret Spellings at a dinner party. What do you say to her?

My response – Ms. Spellings in a speech to over 300 educators you said: “We must treat our teachers like the professionals they are.” 

With that in mind:

Really provide us all the tools we need. Really provide us the infrastructure we need. Really provide us the training we need. Really provide us the time we need for planning and assessment. Really provide us the support services and personnel we need. Then get out of our way.

Any other ideas?

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2 thoughts on “What Would You Say To Margaret Spellings?

  1. I suspect that what she would remember most would be a converstaion framed around your last post –

    I’d ask her
    Do you recall teachers that were passionate about teaching and learning and did their best to make you passionate about it too?

    And then when she has thought about this I’d follow up with

    Who do you remember best? What were they like? What were the conditions of value in teaching and learning that made that passion possible? What do we need to do to create those conditions of value for all educators? When can we start?

  2. I love that. Time and training are two key elements that the powers that be forget we as teachers have to have. In order to bring their vision of a perfect system anywhere close to perfect, we have to change the imperfect way we put teachers into a flawed system and tell them “good luck”.