The Tennessee educator chosen as the nation’s teacher of the year wants America’s 3.5 million teachers to “find their voice” for students as many states seek to censor teachers, ban books, and push voucher policies that send taxpayer funding to private schools, according to an article in Chalkbeat Tennessee.
Missy Testerman, who just ended her tenure as teacher of the year, says these educational priorities demand attention: air conditioners are breaking down in aging school buildings as a new academic year begins; federal pandemic relief funding is running out to pay for tutoring and summer learning programs; and school communities are struggling to provide mental health support, especially for their most marginalized students.
“When we find our voices, we find our own way to stand in the gap for kids. It is not enough to just shut our classroom doors and teach,” Testerman says in her video address to the nation, released this month by the Council of Chief State School Officers.
Among her messages: Teachers are experts in their field.
“Your governor is not an education expert. The legislature is not filled with education experts,” she tells Chalkbeat. “If you want an expert on education policy and outcomes and what works for students, ask your teachers, your administrators, your director of schools.”
In many ways, Testerman says, Tennessee epitomizes the challenges faced by educators across the nation. Many feel like they’re walking on eggshells just to keep demanding jobs that pay a modest salary.
She says some policy changes during the past six years in the state have put a burden on teachers.
A 2021 state law limits what public school teachers can say about race, gender and bias in the classroom and disrupts instruction on difficult but important topics included in the state’s academic standards. A group of Tennessee teachers is challenging that law in federal court.
Tennessee’s 2022 school library law, billed to ensure materials are age-appropriate, quickly expanded so that a state panel can ban certain books statewide, based on local complaints.
While it often feels as though her profession is under siege, Testerman says she’s inspired by the educators she’s met across America as she advocates for higher compensation and more respect.
“This job can feel heavy,” she says. “Teachers are facing student behavioral and mental health issues at a scale they’ve never seen before. We have no idea what kids go home to. But we can make the seven hours that they’re with us happy. We can use those hours to deliver academic content in a way that prepares them to move on and hopefully create a good life.”
“We are hope givers,” she says.
Chalkbeat Tennessee
