Why does everything seem driven by politics today?  We see on a daily basis where people are divided by party lines; either you’re an elephant or a donkey.  And the animal who represents you has with it certain attributes.  Words like “progressive” which I think originally must have had a positive meaning are now used to insult those who are perceived as not “progressive”.  Because if you’re not “progressive”, you must be going backwards or standing still, neither of which is a good thing apparently.  Snowflakes used to be lovely things that fell from the sky during winter, however, now the word is used to insult young people who have been allowed to grow up without a lot of difficulty in their lives and apparently they don’t know how to handle it.  Not always their fault, but we insult them anyway instead of helping them.

It’s not that I don’t have a political belief system, it’s just not as black and white as the political parties would like us to be.  And I certainly don’t bring it into my job. I mean, could you imagine if I taught my kids based on whether their parents were democrat or republican?  How many assumptions could be made about those kids?  After all, the kids of republican parents are obviously all privileged white supremists who love guns, country music and camo while the kids of democratic parents have been raised in a nurturing environment where nobody says no, everyone is gay, vegetarian and prefers saving animals to babies.  Sound ridiculous?  Absolutely, but it’s just as ridiculous as believing that everything I do or say should be driven by my political affiliation.

My belief system comes first and my decision to follow any party at all comes from whether or not that party supports MY beliefs, not the other way around.  I don’t follow them, they should follow or represent me.  We have it completely backward right now.  And understanding that my beliefs or needs should be acknowledged by the parties drives who I ultimately vote for.  That’s the right of every voter and no one has the right to tell anyone how to think or believe.  I can share what I believe and why, but I also need to listen to others and hear why they believe what they believe.  Our political parties are not supporting this idea and seek to divide us further by pointing out our differences, not places where we might agree.

So when it comes to educating children, this one is a no brainer.  Children are our greatest gifts, our greatest resources.  We should spare no expense for these kids who are the future of our nation and our world, but that is not our reality.  And as a teacher, regardless of how much I am given in order to teach or how much or how little I am provided to do that teaching, my belief pushes me to educate those kids in the best way I can, regardless of what happens in this country politically.  So, my teaching does not change based on who is in the White House or the Department of Education, or what any document says, I still have the power to educate my students the best way I can.  To me, that makes ME the leader in terms educating the children, not someone of a higher pay grade who has no clue of what education is.

As I’ve become more involved in our state, regional and national music education association, I’ve learned so much about policy, bills, appropriations and the like and how all of these things are driven politically.  And, as a teacher, if I had to wait for these people in government to get their act together before I effectively taught my kids, it would never get done.  I don’t think this makes our government meaningless,  but at this time in history it is certainly ineffective.  So ineffective, in fact, that I can continue to do my job without them.

So, my teacher friends, let’s just imagine here that you work in a school and your principal has to be gone for a while.  Does the school fall apart?  Do we stop teaching?  No, just because the leadership is not currently there, we step in as a school community  and continue to not only do our own job, but in a lot of cases, band together to make sure everything gets done that needs to get done.  We didn’t need the principal to do that because we’re professionals, and as professionals, we can keep the building running.

I know we have a lot of people in the world concerned that everything is going to come to an end because we have a lack of real leadership right now in the political sense.  But the leadership isn’t just in Washington, it’s all of us, stepping in when the principal is out of the building. We’re the ones who continue to do our jobs, the people who step up and are willing to step into leadership roles and work together in a positive way to make things happen.  This lack of leadership CAN be temporary if we’re willing to take politics out of it and just do what’s right for people.  It’s not rocket science. Making sure that we vote for people who reflect our belief systems and not those who try to cast their belief systems on us is the first step, but then, regardless of the outcome, we become leaders by taking care of our children and each other.