The following essay was submitted by Curtis Czarniak, retired teacher and school administrator, Tully; Jeanne Elmer, mental health consultant, Tully; and James C. Czarniak, former deputy commissioner of the Onondaga County Department of Children and Family Services and Founder of Brightpath Strategies, East Syracuse.
Public education is in crisis. The full impact of this crisis hit home a few weeks ago when a niece, a dedicated, creative and caring 8th-grade English teacher with 22 years of experience, decided to leave teaching. She joins the thousands of teachers who have left the profession since the pandemic.
Much is happening in our country and world today that we worry and care about. It can be exhausting. In this environment, education can easily get lost in the shuffle. But now is not the time to overlook our children, their teachers, and our schools. We need to pay attention. And we need to act. It is not enough to try to simply “reform” education in our community. We must completely reimagine it. We want you to be a part of the process.
Yes, there really are national crises in education that impact students, their teachers and our communities. If you think these crises are happening only in some far-off city or state, you are mistaken. They are happening here, in Central New York, at different levels of severity, in every district and school.
The crises facing our children, their teachers and our communities know no geographic, economic, racial, ethnic or gender boundaries. All of our children are capable of intolerance and bullying. Any of our children can struggle with academic achievement. Disconnected from peers and adults, they can all seek a sense of belonging in gangs, drug culture or other unhealthy relationships. They can all experience threats of violence, high levels of stress, anxiety, loneliness, and despair. A frightening number of high school aged students report seriously considering suicide (30% of females, 14.3 % of males). And every…
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