A May Day Poem about Education, Kaivoksela Finland and Mapleton Colorado by Molly Prince
Paivi Karkkainen – one of Molly’s teachers in Kaivkosela, Finland (years later)
I was at the capitol on Friday with a few thousand
teachers and paraprofessionals
and their supportive friends and allies.
It was a beautiful sea of red.
And I found myself remembering
something my teacher said to me
In 1988.
in my class,
where I was the only dark haired girl in a sea of blondes.
Because I was in a somewhat unusual
situation
for a little American girl.
My classroom was in a
Finnish public school
in Helsinki, Finland.
My teacher,
Regina Vesola,
told us
That a nation can be judged
by
how it treats its young and its old.
The class swelled with pride
when she told them Finland’s
ranking for
how they take care of their
children.
I wish
I could swell with pride
about the way
Colorado
takes care
of its children.
However,
at my school
last year
we
literally
had shit running
down the hallway.
A sewer problem
that every year
was
supposedly fixed
but kept coming back
in different
forms.
One year
I was teaching
a reading lesson
to a couple of
fourth graders.
They were sitting at my
kidney shaped
teacher table.
Ms Prince,
it smells like poop,
one of them said.
Why yes,
I realized.
It does.
taking the class
outside
to escape
sewer smells
started to feel
like a
regular
part
of
the routine.
Good news.
A new building
is under construction
this very moment
and
next Fall
kids and teachers
will be in a new building.
With.
-we assume, we hope, we cross our fingers,
no
sewer smells.
How did this happen?
It was a collaborative
effort
but our
local teachers’
Union
helped.
Our local
teachers’
union
organized
going door to door
knocking
asking people
to vote yes
on the bond.
The bond passed by
(dramatic pause)
45 votes.
People who don’t want
to join the union
tell me
about ways it is imperfect.
I don’t claim that
its perfect.
Nobody is.
But
the teachers union
is a powerful force
for good
for teachers and
students.
So, if you are a teacher
and have
the opportunity
to to join the teachers union
I hope you will.
Teaching, even when its good,
is exhausting work.
Teaching in impoverished schools
takes a toll
on a person’s
health
and on their spirit.
My acupuncturist tells me
he see tons of teachers
for insomnia.
A therapist friend tells
me she has numerous
stressed out melting down
teachers as clients.
I’ve lesson planned for hours
on Sundays for
17 years.
I decided not to do the math
about how many hours that adds up to.
And there is also so much I love
about teaching.
So much that is beautiful
and rewarding.
Something that gives me hope
is initiative #93
that teachers unions and superintendents
among others are
working to get on
the ballot
this November
that would increase funding
for all Colorado schools
and would especially
benefit the
poorest ones.
Here are a few of the things I want
when I say I want more funding for schools.
I want students in all schools to have music
and art and libraries.
I want the students
with the highest
needs to have
their needs met.
I want students to have engaging resources
and
Teachers who come back year after year
and hone their craft
until they are master teachers.
Because the conditions and the
pay make it desirable….
Mapleton, Colorado school bond campaign…2017.
View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 
Excellent commentary on the schools. I was a Colorado teacher and I quit at the age of 35, that was almost 40 years ago and the only thing that has changed is that it is getting worse. I remember having to take money out of my pittance salary to buy books and copy them to make textbooks. In those days, I was expected to work all day, take papers home to grade all night and all weekend. I was a high school English teacher for a while and I was expected to grade more than 100 essays each week, outside of class. Although I got out of coaching sports, most teachers had to do that too. I hear now that teachers are at the constant beck and call of parents with email, etc. For years after teaching I had dreams about it and I think I suffered from a form of PTSD. The only reason it seems that school districts can hold personnel is because there isn’t much you can do with a liberal arts education. I actually liked teaching, but it was a dead end with low pay, a lot of stress, not to mention lack of materials and a suffocating infrastructure. Nowadays teachers have huge student loans they will never pay off and the Capitalist Hogs want to take retirement away from them.