In the words of Ted Lasso, “Be curious”. That's what led me to reach out to Jade. Outside of her just being a fantastic person to be around, I wanted to ask her about being a public school teacher. School teachers, and public education in general are in the news a fair amount here in Florida. It makes it easy to make assumptions on what is actually going on when you’re reading headlines and opinion articles. I figured I would go directly to the source and “update” my assumptions with someone who actually works in public education.

If you don’t know, Jade is a High School teacher who molds young minds in the language of math. One of the questions I knew I was going to ask was how she got into math. It turns out she found this focus due to a series of good teachers opening up this path for her, and bad teachers closing other paths for her. For me this really shows how important the student/teacher relationship is. This isn’t really a job where you can clock in, do your eight hours and clock back out, you truly do have to care and love the job. She recalled one teacher who would give an explanation on how something worked, asked if everyone understood it, and if one student said they didn’t understand it, the teacher would explain it all over in a completely different way to make sure that every student understood the lesson.

From what I have seen having my own child in public school, and from what Jade has told me. It is rough in the trenches of high school. From over 200 referrals in the first month of school, to kids not understanding what is expected of them or know how simply to behave. It really does seem there is a disconnect with kids on how they should act and how they do act. It’s easy to blame the parents for their kids because it really is on them, but at the same time it's a generational issue and we all need to step up and give them a better example to live up to.

I am a proud union man. It’s one of the best things I have found in my adult life. Not all unions are created equal. My union works by getting a bunch of contractors together, sign an agreement stating they will hire our union members, and pay them a specific amount which includes pay, pension, and healthcare. Also the contract tells them to generally not be a jackass.

I was curious to ask how the teacher’s union works. The best way to describe it is, if you view capitalism as a sea, and my union as a large boat protecting the workers in it. The teacher’s union seems to be a life raft that is deflating. In broad strokes they both are there to protect their workers but the teacher’s union is fighting for it’s life to get a few fractions of a percent of a raise.

I asked Jade if there was anything she wanted to say or pass on to anyone and she told me this. If you can’t embrace being an authority figure, don’t become a public school teacher. Not that you need to be a dictator, but you do need to step up, take charge and get people engaged.

I have probably sat with this document open for thirty minutes now trying to find a way to end this on a positive note. It’s hard to be positive when the subject is the Florida public education system. There is a positive though. Jade and teachers like her. She has an uphill battle between not getting paid what she should be, dealing with policies, and dealing with kids who still don’t know why they should care. She is there though, doing the heavy lifting. (Yes, that's a powerlifting pun. I am not above it)