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This afternoon, Ward 5 resident and NSHS Class of 2024 class president Kevin Yang delivered a speech outside of Newton’s Ed Center, where negotiations are continuing extremely slowly between the School Committee and the Newton Teachers Association, which remains on strike going into a fourth day of canceled classes.
As we ponder the unsustainable disinvestment in public services and unsustainable treatment of our teachers and aides, as we ruminate on the unsustainably regressive municipal taxation system from a bygone age that our Commonwealth has yoked us to, we can read Kevin’s words and be cheered to know there is no structural deficit of support for our educators from students and parents in this community, even as some of our elected officials are working overtime to try to create permanent bad blood after this ends.
Since Kevin is a great speaker and writer and a constituent in my ward, I asked him to send me the prepared text to distribute to my email list:
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Good afternoon, my name is Kevin Yang. I’m a senior from Newton South High School and one of the students who littered South and North’s halls with orange pamphlets.
Yesterday morning, I went on a long run. Wanting to take a trip down memory lane, I ran a route that weaved through Newton’s many elementary schools. I first ran past Mason-Rice, then Angier, Bowen, Pierce, and finally my alma mater, Countryside. Yet, as I passed these elementary schools, I had difficulty connecting my childhood with the reality of the present day. Rather than seeing these schools bustling with energy, children playing tag on the playgrounds, TAs shepherding kids down the halls, I saw teachers outside, single file, signs hung around their necks, cow bells ringing in hand. In freezing, almost sub-zero weather, my educators stood there.
This is in stark contrast to what I grew up with. I grew up seeing these passionate, lively adults teaching classrooms of curious, wide-eyed children. I grew up with mentors who would run up to the board to explain why y=mx+b, or teachers who plastered their walls with motivational sayings or started every morning with a physics-related meme.
Yet rather than seeing my educators standing at the front of the class, breathing life into their rooms, I saw a sea of signs, their faces now hidden.
And this is what disheartens me the most about the current state of our schools. It’s not the moldy ceilings of South’s science department, the 30+ student calculus classes, or even the various cut extracurriculars. It’s my school committee’s and Mayor Fuller’s continued disrespect, and dehumanization of my educators.
Because these teachers that stand behind me---the Unit A to Unit E members---they aren’t some expense on a spreadsheet. They aren’t some droppable fraction of a “Full-Time Equivalent” or the first place to reach when you need to cut costs. They’re aspiring parents, ambitious scholars, laid-back mentors, and community leaders. These people are my educators.
In a crowd, it’s easy to lose sight of these brilliant professionals. It’s easy to look past the day-in, day-out dedication of Newton educators. But in this crowd, I still see the very mentors and TAs who taught me to solve problems with honesty and to approach hardship with kindness and dignity.
So, Mayor Fuller, as we all stand here for another day of rallies, I have a message for you.
If all you see of my teachers are bodies in a crowd or a complication to the city's budget, then it's time to think again; these educators who stand before me are the smartest, strongest, and bravest people I know. If you don’t know that, Mayor Fuller, then it’s time for you to go back to school.
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Kevin, thanks for sharing your speech with our community. (And thank goodness for First Amendment protections for our students!)
See you tomorrow morning.
If you are interested in donating to support the NTA strike fund, that link is here.