Jay Martin: What Will Education Become Without Teacher Voice?

I’ve been privileged to participate in the flagship Embark leadership program for young Memphians.  We had our graduation tonight and were privileged to hear from Mr. Jay Martin as our keynote speaker.  Martin started the Boys and Girls club Technical training center to teach young men and women directly applicable career skills in the fields of culinary arts and logistics.  Mr. Martin also comes from a long line of educators, including teachers, principals and superintendents.  Indeed, Mr. Martin taught himself for two years in his younger years.

Throughout his speech, he referred back to his experiences as an educator and those experiences of his family members to describe how educators have and always will continue to face challenges unique to their specific time and their specific profession.  Whether trying to figure out how to teach children about exponents with a brown paper roll or iPads, teachers have always been asked to do much more than should be expected of any professional for a very small salary. However, he noted that teachers have always faced a consistent struggle. Teachers always have and will continue to fulfill those duties because of our commitment to our children and public education.  This will always remain constant.

However, this does not mean that we shouldn’t strive for change.  Mr. Martin constantly referenced how the challenges facing teachers have transformed over time.  Where once the question was how to get students to school when the only transportation was horseback, now we struggle with lack of funding, ever changing curriculum and mandates and many more challenges.

Teachers must be a part of the conversation if we are to impact this change and ensure it guides our profession in a direction that ensures it achieves the outcomes we want for our kids. Teachers MUST make their voices heard and be a part of taking teaching from where it’s been, where it is, to where it is going to be.  But Mr. Martin expressed this better than I can, so I’ll use his words to close this segment:

“Education for our kids isn’t about what it’s like now or what it’s been. It’s about what it’s gonna be like in the future, and we need innovation and creativity to continually improve, especially from teachers.”

I agree whole heartedly with Mr. Martin.  Educators must constantly strive to improve our profession.  We must work constantly to improve those things that don’t work and enhance those that do.  We must speak out in support of policies that empower our kids and ensure that when they leave us, they will go to the classroom of another high quality colleague.  Regardless of your beliefs about how to best accomplish this, the teaching profession as a whole will not improve as long as teachers stay out of the ring and leave the policy making to others.

This is why I do what I do, why I am committed to promoting teacher voice, and why I will continue to do so as long as educators search for ways to express themselves and be a part of this discussion.  Only by doing so will we ever see it improve for us and for our kids.

A big thanks to Embark Memphis and the New Memphis Institute for the opportunity to hear Mr. Martin speak.  Follow us @bluffcityed on twitter and sign up to receive email updates on our home page