As mentioned before in previous posts, we have extraordinary students. During the recent City of Riverside / RUSD essay contest entitled, My Perfect Tomorrow: How I Envision Riverside as a City of Arts and Innovation one of our 6th grade student wrote the following essay. The most amazing part is that student rises above her challenges and sees the future. She challenges us to see the same kind of bright future and then make it happen. Enjoy!
Every time I think of Annie’s song, “Tomorrow,” I think tomorrow might be a better day, because my life is like hers. I am not an orphan, but I am a foster kid, so I know how it feels to have to look forward to better days. In a way, it’s the same thing for Riverside. Riverside right now isn’t the “City of Arts and Innovation,” but if we all work together and realize how great art and innovation could be for Riverside, it could be! It would only be a matter of time.
Making Riverside over will take money and it will take people putting their hearts into it. If we don’t believe, we won’t have a perfect tomorrow. All my life I have heard, “If you don’t believe, then don’t try.” Believing will keep you trying. I really do believe that we could make it happen.
I have learned that it is not always easy being a foster kid, just like I know that turning Riverside around won’t be easy either. Tomorrow is not easy to predict. I love art and I think it would be great, not only for me, but for everyone. I think Riverside would be perfect as the “City of Arts and Innovation.” Some people have told me, “Don’t get your hopes up.” But of course I do. I can’t help myself. Even if I don’t get to ever go back to my dad, I don’t look at the down-side. There’s always a down-side to everything, but if you only focus on the down-side, what do you get?
I would never look at the down-side of making Riverside the “City of Arts and Innovation.” I am not saying that it will happen, but why live your life unhappy? If you don’t try, the sun might never come out, but if you want to be happy, just try and the sun will come out. I think it will take a lot of people helping though. If people keep going to the theaters, the theaters will grow and grow.
See, Annie was just waiting for tomorrow to come. That is something we can’t do because the City of Riverside can’t just magically become “The City of Arts and Innovation.” We have to want it and work at it. I bet the last thing you want to do is work, and I know that it won’t be easy, but it won’t be that hard either. If we work together and if we believe that tomorrow will be a better day, it will be. Riverside can be better, maybe not today, but it could be to tomorrow. We could make Riverside the “City of Arts and Innovation” tomorrow. With tomorrow, we always have another day.
"If we work together and if we believe that tomorrow will be a better day, it will be." From the pens and mouths of babes we will know the way.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good essay with a very positive message. How though can we even consider such a tomorrow when 444 teachers have been pink-slipped. How will tomorrow look without many of our best and brightest teachers? It's irresponsible to talk about a better tomorrow if you are going to turn a blind eye to today.
ReplyDeleteWhat we need is a way to get rid of the ineffective teachers so that we can keep our best and brightest! But the union and contract forbid it (or are irresponsible, as you put it)and it is nearly impossible to get rid of a teacher once he/she is tenured.
ReplyDeleteThis change in policy would help us make a better tomorrow!!!
As a former RUSD assistant principal, principal, and Human Resources Administrator, and currently a teacher, I can assure you, teachers are not the problem. For both today, and tomorrow, teachers are Riverside's best hope.
ReplyDeleteTo suggest that we work together to build a better tomorrow in no way must imply that one is unaware or unwilling to acknowledge the very real concerns of today. The suggestion is the antithesis of irresponsibility. Our best and brightest teachers, whether pink-slipped or not, labor each day to ensure that the young people they teach are successful and will be into tomorrow. That said, I second the comment that we must revamp our policies and practices that allow ineffective teachers to remain on the job without significant improvement. Without change to such practices, the very essence of free and appropriate public education is threatened.
ReplyDelete"We have to want it and work at it. I bet the last thing you want to do is work, and I know that it won’t be easy, but it won’t be that hard either. If we work together and if we believe that tomorrow will be a better day, it will be. Riverside can be better, maybe not today, but it could be tomorrow."
ReplyDeleteI can't help but believe that the outlook and future of RUSD would be so much brighter if all of the decision-making parties (Union and District), would want it, work at it, and make it happen. We owe this to our students and teachers. Perhaps the negotiation meeting on March 23 should begin with reading these very wise words. Perhaps everyone in that meeting should vow to want it, work at it and make it happen.
What some people whine about as “strings” attached to the early retirement negotiations are merely efforts of the district trying to regain some sort of common sense control. The RCTA is refusing to negotiate on allowing the district to move teachers between campuses in response to enrollment needs. As it is now, and how the union wants it to remain, is that if there is a need for an additional teacher at a campus due to increased enrollment the district is prohibited from moving a teacher from another campus that doesn't have the same enrollment demands. This means that the district has to pay an additional teacher when there is no need to do so, thus decreasing the available funds to retain teachers for the coming school year and resulting in more-not fewer-"pink slips". The union in this case is protecting the WANTS of high ranking experienced teachers to not be inconvenienced by keeping their jobs at another campus at the expense of young teachers' careers and at the expense of the children of the taxpayers of Riverside. Common sense control, this is not what the union gives us.
ReplyDeleteWhen I arrived in Riverside a few years ago I received the negotiation updates from RCTA in my mailbox and as I remember they wanted to raid the districts’ resources for teacher raises which I’m sure would result increased union dues. Just think of the bigger mess we’d be in today had they won all their demands. The 400+ lay-offs we are facing are horrible, but just think how many more there would be if the district had to somehow cut millions of additional dollars from the budget due to union demands. Short-sightedness, this is what the union gives us.
The district administration is trying to save money and thus jobs while the union is behaving as if it's still 2006. The quicker the RCTA gets serious the quicker a more prosperous tomorrow will arrive.
I was very inspired by this student's words. This student has every reason to be discouraged by life's cercumstances but instead looks at the possibilities. I believe if we all work together and remember it is students like these we are working for we can come together and create a better tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteEvery one seems to want to point a finger at each other. Let us remember it is the district's responsibility to look at what is best for the students and how to meet those needs with the available resources. The job of the unions is to look out for the best interest of the teachers and classified personnel, not the students. When times are good I never hear the unions say they want more money for the classrooms. They only say they want an increase in salaries. The students are not receiving any less of an education if we all take a pay cut to save jobs.
I have repeatedly heard teachers as well as classified staff say they are willing to take pay cuts and or furloughs if it will save jobs. It is time for the unions to come to the table with the students best interest in mind.
In a better tomorrow..the union and RUSD would negotiate for the good of all its teachers. They would stop bashing each other and try to work together. They would stop pointing fingers and try to save as many jobs as possible. They would negotiate a rewarding golden handshake that would compensate veteran teachers for their years serviced..with no strings attached. In a better tomorrow..the union would agree to take furlough days so that jobs could be saved! In a better tomorrow .. some of the 444 pink slips would be recinded.. What if Tomorrow Never Comes? Who suffers..The Greatest gift of all..Our children!
ReplyDeleteAs a parent of a graduating Senior, I have always encouraged better grades, better attitude and never give up your dream. Her being a student with a gift for drawing, imagination and the strong desire to fulfill her lifelong dream as an artist is what I thought this essay was about. I am so thankful for all of the teachers who helped with her questions, support and afterschool tutoring in order for her to go to college. Her "tomorrow" is a reality and she could never have had the confidence and self-esteem to believe she is in control of her life. Hopefully, she will make you and Riverside proud and don't forget, she has seen her teachers shed a tear when they received their pink slip and this was a sad reality in her Senior year. Thank you for everything!!!
ReplyDeleteHow will the children of Riverside ever learn to appreciate the Arts and Innovation if they've never learned about art or music? In today's classroom, we teach skills, not stories. We teach to a pacing guide. We teach reading, writing, math, and ELD. And then we test, test, test! The only art the children of Riverside seem to know is the correct way to fill in a bubble. Did Warhol ever paint a bubble sheet?
ReplyDeleteCultures are studied by their art, music, and literature. What type of art, music, and literature will the children of today know and appreciate to make the dream of tomorrow a reality?
We have four children who graduated from RUSD schools, and went on to graduate from college and various levels of grad school. What they remember (and what we captured on film and video) are the performances, plays, art projects, science projects, Young Author's Day, History Day, sports teams, Skills Day, band, Christmas performances, talent shows...and the list goes on. They had literature circles and read novels, and never worried about how many points a book had. School wasn't perfect then and a few of these things still occur on elementary campuses, but the pendulum has swung too far. Education should promote a love of learning and the development of social skills and talent, not just learning required for a test.
ReplyDeleteAs negotiations commence tomorrow (Tuesday), I am asking that the District and Union negotiators go into these meetings with open eyes and a desire to work for all of the students and employees they represent. Please consider options that would save teaching jobs. A loss of twenty percent of the teaching staff or 444 teachers will affect everyone most importantly the students. I would ask you to work with the transfer language. What about allowing it for a set time period only because of our extreme situation? In my old district, involuntarily transferred teachers had a three year right to return to the original site. Agree to an ERIP. I sat with two other RUSD teachers at a training on Friday who are waiting for a settlement to retire. Bargain furlough days for jobs. It is clear from the RCTA site that teachers are willing to trade days for teachers. Allow teachers to do the right thing. Make that a reality. Allow furlough days or a salary roll back to be used to reinstate some form of class-size reduction. We worked too hard to implement that and make it a reality, and it is the right thing for our students. I agree that we probably won’t be able to afford full RSR, so agree to graduate the class sizes. Most of all, I’m asking you to go in with an open mind, a desire to retain as many teachers as possible, and the willingness to negotiate knowing that we are providing the best possible future for the students of RUSD.
ReplyDelete