Nearly 50 years ago, during my final semester at the University of Tulsa, I completed the student teaching requirement for my B.S.Ed. in a sixth grade classroom in a Tulsa public elementary school. The State of Oklahoma thereupon conferred, upon me, a lifetime teaching certificate for K-8. My path after that led me to the bridge of a U.S. Navy destroyer, to law school, to a career in courts and hearing rooms all over the Country and to retirement, but never back to teaching in a public school classroom.
Nevertheless, I’ve been deeply moved by the courage and determination of Oklahoma’s long suffering public school teachers. A GoFundMe, found here, raises money to support the teachers’ actions. I gave. You can, too. If you just have moral support to lend, here is a Facebook page where you can do that. if anyone knows of any other fundraising efforts on behalf of these demonstrators please advise in a comment and I will update the OP with links.
PS
The photograph at the top of the post has particular poignance for me. Part of my previously mentioned legal career was spent in the Oklahoma Capitol as an Assistant Attorney General. The Attorney General and many of the assistants occupy half of the West Wing on the first floor of the building, where the bottom of the Rotunda is pictured. The other half of that wing on that floor is occupied by the Jan Eric Cartwright Memorial Law Library. The late Jan Cartwright was a firebrand progressive of the old school who was responsible for bringing me to the State Capitol, where I also served under two of his successors.
Every day, going to and from my office, which looked out on the Capitol’s South lawn, I walked past the giant depiction of the Great Seal of the State of Oklahoma, seen on the bottom floor of the Capitol Rotunda, pictured above. Even though my life moved on, and out of Oklahoma nearly 25 years ago, seeing that space, pictured with those people, demonstrating for that cause, triggers a torrent of emotions and memories, of both justice and injustice. Most poignantly, I’m reminded of why I decided to start law school after the Navy, instead of starting my teaching career. I couldn’t face the financial sacrifice of teaching. My spouse of 47 years actually did teach public school briefly, and is now also a retired attorney. I know that doesn’t make us bad people, but I can’t help but feel that every teacher standing in the picture is a better person than me.