My first two years of high school were spent at a very small school in Verden, Oklahoma. This high school was very small--one hallway, to be exact. There were maybe 100 kids in the entire school.
Recently, the state of Oklahoma has been put in the nation's spotlight, and not for a good reason. Teachers in about 70 Oklahoma school districts staged a week of walkouts over low pay and slender school budgets.
Oklahoma pays its teachers less than any other state. However, even though they make less, they are still expected to do everything that all of the teachers in every other state do.
I have heard some people say that a way to save money in our state and put it back in the education system would be to close the smaller schools and make those students go to the larger schools that were close.
Personally, I think that is an awful idea. From my experience in that small school system, I learned more from those educators than just your basic math, English, history and science.
For example, it was in that school system that I learned if you're early, you're on time; if you're on time, you're late; if you're late, you're fired. Because of that statement, to this day I am 10-15 minutes early for everything.
I have that high school to thank for my love of Agriculture. It was in that school that I was held to higher standard because those educators saw the promise in me and knew that I could do great things long before I knew it.
These teachers go above and beyond every day for kids who aren't grateful. To make it even worse, they don't get the pay they deserve, and then they are underfunded and can't even afford things like new chairs that aren't broken or updated textbooks for their classrooms.
Oklahoma educators had every right to do this walkout. I hate that it came to this because paying your educators shouldn't be that hard of a concept.
When I was choosing my major, I wanted to be an ag teacher, to influence the youth just like my educators influenced me. My mom, who was a teacher, advised against it due to the lack of pay, funding and support I would get. I listened and chose a different major, but it's ridiculous that parents should have to discourage their children who want to be educators.
This is a problem that should have been fixed a long time ago, and I fully support Oklahoma educators.