In the last month, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the appointment of new Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. People expressed their opinions all over social media, whether they agreed with the DeVos appointment or not. Last week, Jessica Bologna, a fourth grade teacher from South Florida, took to Facebook to share her now viral thoughts.

"Dear Mrs. DeVos,

I write to you today for many reasons. As a teacher and Trump voter, I am very opinionated and stand strongly in my convictions. However, I will not preach about whether your plans are right or wrong. I will not complain about your strengths and weaknesses in regards to education. I will not tell you how to do your job, as I couldn't imagine holding such a powerful position - being the head of our country's future. I will ask you a favor though...

What I ask of you is quite simple. I ask that you explore. Explore the private and charter schools you help fund. Explore wealthy neighborhoods with highly effective teachers that are passionate about their jobs, because it makes things easier when you have all resources at your disposal. Explore public, private, and charter schools in prominent areas where supplies are brand new and each kid comes to school with a full stomach and a good nights rest. Explore areas that boast having the highest test scores. Explore newly built schools with the best technology. Talk to those teachers. Talk to those students. Find out their needs, wants, likes, and dislikes. Then I want you to explore even more. I ask you to explore the areas that don't look like the ones you grew up in. Go to the lower socioeconomic areas. Explore title one schools. Sit in an overfilled classroom of 30 students who's last meal was lunch the day before. Find the student who's sleeping in class, because they share a bed with their 4 siblings, so they didn't sleep well the night before. Look for the student that is quiet and you can see the fear in her eyes because if she says the wrong thing, she's accustomed to getting beat. Explore the first grade classroom where kids can't spell their names because they weren't afforded the same opportunities as their wealthier counterparts. Explore the classrooms that have textbooks from the 80's and broken crayons. Go to schools where the students go home to empty houses because one parent is working two jobs to compensate for being a single parent. Explore schools that are D and F schools. Schools that have teachers busting their butts to raise scores but have no control over external circumstances. Explore the classrooms that have teachers that are so overworked and unappreciated, they're at their breaking point. Explore the schools where you have to walk through a metal detector to get into. Walk into schools that have outdated technology and limited resources. Explore the classrooms that are fully stocked thanks to their teacher who chose to spend that extra $100 he/she had on supplies for their students instead of buying those new shoes they so desperately wanted. Explore a school that is run down, yet left as is because there's no money in the county left to fix it. Explore a school that has a large SWD (student with disabilities) cluster. Find out what goes into helping those children succeed. See what it's like to be a teacher. Look for schools that are heavily populated with non-English speaking migrant children. Learn the complications that come along with language barriers. Don't just walk through those schools. Don't do these things just for the publicity. Choose one of those rooms and teach for 2 weeks straight. Talk to those kids. Talk to those teachers. Find out their needs, wants, likes and dislikes. Find out their everyday struggles. Open your eyes to what public education is really like outside of your affluent zip code.

Without doing any of this, you won't understand. Just because you sat in a classroom as a student, doesn't mean you get it. We don't want to hear of your education accolades, when you haven't gotten to know the struggles of teachers in ALL socioeconomic areas. I want you to understand that most teachers are in their classrooms well before the bell rings and long after schools over - without overtime. I want you to understand that as much as this job is for the children, it is also about the teachers. Unhappy employees to do not create happy environments. I want you to understand that blanket statements don't work in education. There is so much gray in our profession. I want you to understand that you cannot hold students in impoverished areas to the same standards as those in wealthy areas. This is not because of intelligence levels, but because of home life, opportunity, and resources. I want you to understand that no matter how many times I repeated myself to my students, they couldn't comprehend me because they were too tired and hungry to focus on anything else. I want you to understand that over-testing our children takes away from giving them the opportunity to learn, as ironic as that sounds. Understand that it's frustrating as a teacher to be scored based on how your students perform. Lawyers are not reputable because of the criminals they represent, but by the cases THEY won. Doctors are not reputable because of the way their patients react to medication, but whether THEY took care the patient to the best of their ability. In most professions, the person is rewarded or punished based off their own performance, not anyone else's. I want you to understand that we are professionals. We went to school for education and it is insulting to be handed a script to read from. I want you to understand that we are capable. Trust us. Don't keep us micromanaged. Allow us to let our passion and creativity shine through. Allow us to teach concepts and not how to take a test. I want you to understand that we do this because we were born to do this and regardless of any policies, we will continue to do it, and do it in the best way we can.

I hope you read this. I hope you read this, do this, and understand a little bit more. I hope that you take the time to listen to the people who's lives you are affecting. I hope you do the absolute best you can for every type of student. I will be holding you accountable for giving each and every student the rights, needs, and resources necessary. While you may not be the President, your job is just as, if not more, important. Your actions affect the future of this country, choose wisely.

Sincerely,
Jessica Bologna
4th grade teacher in South Florida"

Jessica Bologna is a 26-year-old 4th grade teacher in sunny South Florida. She has always been very passionate about teaching and ultimately wants to help make a change in the education system as a whole. To keep up with Jessica, follow her onTwitter and Instagram.