Losing and Finding Our Voices

                Think back carefully to when you were in school and you first learned about our governmental structure and the Bill of Rights.  How did you feel?  What did you think about living in a country where freedom of speech is allowed and where our government accepts letters from the people about their concerns?  Now ask yourself, do you still feel the same way today?

               When I first learned about our government in elementary school, I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of pride, patriotism, and confidence in our government.  As I got older and went through high school, my teachers encouraged us to advocate for ourselves and to make our voices heard as part of our democracy.  I eagerly registered to vote as soon as I turned eighteen (and have voted in every election since then, even voting in absentia from Scotland while I was studying).  I also adamantly voiced my opinions about politics, the world, and hot-button issues in society and government.  I left high school feeling empowered and part of the collective whole that could make a difference in this world.  This sense of empowerment continued into college as I joined a campus political organization, attended political rallies, and put my efforts into being a responsible, active citizen of the United States.

                Then, something happened to me towards the end of college that continued into my adulthood.  What happened to me happens to most other adults and is a major problem within our society.  I found that I started to develop more than a healthy dose of cynicism concerning politics.  I still believed in our government and the principles that served as the foundation of our country, but I found myself disillusioned by the Politics that came into play.  Politics for me became a capitalized word, a personified entity that threatened to ruin the democracy that I held dear.  I began to question the systems of bureaucracy both in our government and in other social services that seemed to create too much red tape in order to get anything truly accomplished. I doubted whether the government that was founded “by the people, for the people” was still “for [ALL] the people.”   I lost the belief that everyone’s thoughts and opinions mattered and became disillusioned by the increasing negativity I saw in newspaper articles, on right-wing and left-wing news networks, heard in conversations, and read on different social media sites.  In short, I began to consume the same vitriolic dialogue against which I once stood in opposition.  I, like so many others, began to let the media’s portrayal of Politics devour the possibilities that our country has to offer.  If you still are not sure of what exactly I am talking about, just spend some time reading comments at the end of any news article online or reading updates on Facebook or Twitter.  You will immediately be inundated with the cynicism of a world that would rather complain than attempt to do anything to bring about change.

                Yet, in the past few years, I’ve slowly started to regain my voice.  Part of the recovery of my voice came from teaching my high school students.  As I encouraged them to think inquisitively about the world, to question everything around them, to come to their own conclusions, and to voice those opinions, I recognized my hypocrisy of not doing the same.  Now, there are some places where it is appropriate to share your beliefs and opinions, and I never do so in the guise of an authority figure in my classroom.  I would never tell my students what to think, nor do I ever tell them exactly what I believe in a classroom setting.  If I did, that would stifle their abilities to find their own voices and their own beliefs.  I refrain from sharing my opinions on interpretations of literature as well as politics in the classroom.  But in hearing my students share their opinions and in seeing their passion to make the world a better place, I started to feel empowered again.  My youthful optimism returned and started to overcome my cynicism.  Then finally, when I had to defend a couple of books that were taught in our school at the school level, the district level, and at the school board, I found my voice again.  I valued the opportunities for discourse provided by the conversations between faculty members, parents, students, and school board members.  I carefully weighed opposing arguments and started to learn more about the delicate balance needed in our schools to reach all students.  In addition, I rediscovered my passions, and I found my beliefs.  I regained my faith in the governmental system and discovered that Politics are really what you make of them and how much you are willing to work within the democratic system that our country provides for us.

                As North Carolina Teacher of the Year, I view my title as one weighed with great responsibility.  I feel that now more than ever, I must not be afraid to let my voice be heard.  But, I am also aware that my voice now must be the voice of more than just myself: my voice is really the voice of the other educators in North Carolina and the voice of our students and their parents.  If I want to make my voice strong, I must listen to the voices and ideas of others, so that I can craft a voice that resonates across the lines of politics and frequent media perceptions to find the possibilities that lie before us in our state. 

                This rediscovery and redefinition of my voice is both terrifying and thrilling for me.  My responsibilities as North Carolina Teacher of the Year must serve as my guide and will sometimes take me beyond the comforts of my life when I allowed my voice to be hidden.  Today I took my first step: I addressed and mailed forty letters to the governor, members of the Senate, and members of the House of Representatives.  The letter was a collective effort created by a team of teachers of the year across the state of North Carolina.  We hope that our collective voice will help bring about positive change for our students in North Carolina. 

                Finally, I want to encourage everyone reading this to develop their own voice.  Let’s drown out the negativity of the cynics around us and rediscover the voice of the child or the young adult who once wanted to change the whole world and found hope and promise in the governmental system. Let’s stop complaining and start fulfilling our civic duties.  Once we find these old voices within, develop them with our maturity and years of insight, and find viable ways to express them, we can achieve so much more than we ever will if we never seek the opportunity to speak and let our voices be heard.