From Seth: The excitement builds and builds

When Dr. Carroll first sent me the e-mail that I was selected to go to D.C. with her and Dean Driscoll, I must say I was shocked. Such an honor, I thought, should not be given to an Undergrad. Isn't a graduate student more worthy of such a prestigious honor. But as we get closer (I mean we only have seven days till the big event), I realize that this is an honor that is extremely humbling and at the same time extremely important.

I think it's very naive to think we can make sudden change. But I personally feel that by talking with these representatives and senators we can shed light to some growing problems, and perhaps allow them to understand where we are coming from. When a pre service teacher is required to pay a hundred and sixty dollars for one certification exam, there is something egregiously wrong. On average, a college student may make from minimum wage roughly 100 dollars. Bi weekly we could maybe put that at 200, give and take taxes. Financial aide is drying up everyday and the opportunities we once had to achieve such subsidies are slowly becoming non existent. How can we as a culture sit by and watch this happen? Action needs to take place.

It was asked of me what I thought about Obama's stimulus plan. To be honest, I don't know what to make of it. I don't think we can make much of it right now. This situation we are in is not going to solve itself anytime soon, not in the foreseeable future. Does that mean we allow our teachers to suffer?


Hopefully this is what we will bring to the attention of our elected officials.