Time for a Breath...
By Camille Zombro, SDEA President and
Marc Capitelli, SDEA Vice President

We usually think of spring as a time to renew and refresh, but
for teachers that happens during the few weeks we have during the
summer. As of this writing, July 9, many of you are still working at
year round schools or at summer school. We are looking forward to the
time we can sleep in (7:30 O ), have a late breakfast or maybe even
a brunch, and perhaps do absolutely NOTHING for an entire day.

For most of us those few days won't last long enough. Maybe we will
get away somewhere to read those books that have been sitting on the
shelf for months or see a new place or return to that place that
grounds us. The siren call of things to do around the house, a summer
class to learn something new, fixing the classroom just they way you
think you want it, soon grabs us and pulls us back to reality.

For those of us who continue through the summer it is a time for
reflection and planning for the coming year. Around the SDEA office,
it's like the time between storms, when the air clears and smells
fresh. This is our time to look back and assess and look forward to
prioritize our options for the coming year.

The NEA- Representative Assembly just finished meeting in
Philadelphia. Over 5 days of caucus and convention, delegates put in
over 52 hours of time listening, thinking, and debating the positions
that the NEA should be taking. Throw into that mix visits from 7
Democratic and one Republican presidential candidates and it made for
an interesting week. You can access the candidates' speeches and
watch the video at www.nea.org/index.html. They all got high
scores on the Pandometer (it keeps track of the amount of pandering
to the crowd), as is to be expected. We give real points though for
Republican Mike Huckabee for just showing up. It was said that he was
the first Republican EVER to address the convention. While we don't
see eye to eye on a number of issues, he did show up. If you go by
what they said, you could vote for any of them and seemingly do all
right on the education issues. Read or watch their speeches and keep
in mind a quote from Joe Biden. It was close to this, "Don't tell me
I am a priority. Show me your budget and I will tell you if I am a
priority!" Sounds appropriate for SDUSD!

Outshining all the politicians was actor Richard Dreyfuss. He spoke
most eloquently about the sacred trust we, as educators, hold for the
continuation and preservation of our democracy. Please take a few
minutes to read his remarks at
www.nea.org/annualmeeting/raaction/07dreyfuss.html.

We do much more for our society than teach. We need to remember when
we struggle to correct NCLB that an educated electorate is forged in
the crucible of education. If that crucible is contaminated with the
"pig iron" of test score focus and a narrowly-based foundation for
education, the final product will not withstand the challenges ahead.
Is that what the writers of NCLB really intended?

Play hard this summer because we know that you will be working hard
when you restart in August!

Camille and Cap