May 7th is National Teacher Appreciation Day! May 6th through May 10th marks National Teacher Appreciation Week as proclaimed by The White House on May 3rd.
The United States values the education of its citizens for the purpose of strengthening the country's domestic and international potential and to inspire continued progress. A sense of purpose and duty comes naturally for thousands of educators who have a talent for connecting with others to develop their minds and bolster their evolving skills.
Teaching is one of the most memorable of professions where nearly every one of us has at least one well-formed recollection of an educator who made an impression on us in the classroom. An educator is not just someone who is paid to teach but someone who will also spend hours of their own time outside of the classroom to create ways of better serving their students in meaningful and successful ways. By adapting to their own classrooms, teachers will create unique and interesting plans to deliver their lessons while also considering their students' individual receptivity, capability and appreciation for the material.
Our best teachers have spent their careers in tune with others' children entrusted to them as they enrich the numerous needs of the students and guiding them to meet the targets set by their states' education department. One semester after another, teachers have spent hundreds of hours and thousands of their own dollars to hone these necessary skills. They work their own way through American colleges and universities to study the best means and practices, achieving knowledge and insight into student psychology and trends that arise and how to administer adequate and often exceptional applications.
The result of this effort is a population possessing a sufficient base of knowledge to meet the needs of their community, earn a living and attain personal satisfaction. In 2024, this is no easy task following the advent of extreme activism over the last decade or so. Spilling its way into the classrooms, political activism has taken the spotlight away from practical education and reasonable boundaries between the teacher and student. 
Any number of radical and provocative positions held by those in the adult world with significant power and influence have the incentive to systematically deconstruct American society as we know it.
To counter the growing number of education professionals who have lost sight of the original purpose and intent of educating our youth, especially in tax-payer funded public schools, Governor DeSantis recently signed legislation to eliminate the type of employee training that would push a new educator to parrot extreme media and corporate propaganda in the classroom. Without this legislation, much of this training has or would continue to resemble the various chants and marches used in protests that denigrate and distort history with declarations that 1) are not proven to have merit 2) target specific race or religion or heritage and go so far as to label them in a negative and polarizing way.
With HB1291, teachers will be prepared to:
- educate free of propaganda
- attain appropriate certifications and renewals
- prepare temporary staff and substitute teachers
- develop and hone critical thinking skills in themselves and their students
As they do, they will benefit from the experience. And thousands of teachers do so with much enthusiasm, creativity and merit - qualities that are passed on to the student and potential future educators.
So this week, be sure to thank a teacher, instructor or any other educator you may know for meeting the call to improve the society around them through the exchange of knowledge. Take a moment to visit your county's superintendent's webpage, see Pasco County for an example, to view what is available for Florida teachers and how they remain competitive with their colleagues, students and community expectations.
Many volunteers with Convention of States Action are either active or retired educators themselves and are eager to improve civics education in public, private and home-schools. This year, COSA-FL is continuing its endeavor to augment existing civics education by delivering Constitution Week presentations (September 17-23) to the students. We have resources and materials to help our volunteers succeed and we encourage volunteers to reach out to their District/Regional Captains for more details!
