NEA President Reg Weaver Retires

Some memorable quotes from Reg Weaver's Keynote Address at the 2008 NEA Annual Meeting :

My colleagues, it has been almost half a century, 47 years , since I first walked into a classroom as a teacher. A lot of things have happened since then, things that I never could have imagined when I was growing up as a young boy in Danville, Illinois.

Myself, I dreamed of changing the world. And I didn't know how I wanted to do it, but I knew that I wanted to make a difference and show, somehow, the world could be a better place, and I would have a part of it.

The greatest gift that my Mama gave me was inspiration.

Inspiration--inspiring me to get an education. She taught me that education was the only way to a better life, and the only way to change the world. And it is the one tool that can remove barriers to achievement, eliminate limits on ambition and lift the ceilings of potential and promise for families and communities.

I've taught children who could excel in math and science, as well as those who struggled to read and to write. I have taught students who spoke another language, children who were poor, children who were musically and /or artistically inclined, children with disabilites.

And throughout all of that, I knew that to label and pigeonhole a child is to kill the spirit of that child.

Here at Team NEA , we are 3.2 million members strongand we have one message with many voices.

We are cocommitted.

We are courageous.

And we are powerful.

And we are team NEA.

We are passionate. Passionate about public education because we understand that it has the power to transform a child's life to make a difference.

We became educators because we wanted to make a difference, and that's why we have to teach each student as an individual.

Students learn in different ways. So we must be willing to adapt our teaching methods to what works for them.

Folks, if children could not learn the way we teach, then we have to be able to teach the way that they can learn.

Our job as educators is to unlock the door of opportunity.

I became president only a few short months after President Bush jsigned the so-called No Child Left Behind law. And we knew that there were serious problems with the law, not with its goals, but with its implementation.

So we spoke out.

We spoke out about the shortcomings of No Child Left behind.

We lobbied. We lobbied our members of Congress. We wrote editorials and letters to the editor. We spoke up at school board and PTA meetings.

The American public and most members of Congress now understand that No Child Left behind has taken the professionalism out of teaching, the joy out of learning.

Accountability has become an I got you game, designed to blame and punish rather than to build capacity for improvement.

Today, everyone knows that this law must be fixed, and I believe that it will happen thanks to every one of you.

Our vision is simple but powerful. A great public school for every student.

We are committed to bridging the disparities and opportunity that are still prevalent in so many of our schools, and we recognize that ethnic minority communities depend on public education probably more than any other group.

It is now time to continue to combine our commitment , combine our courage, combine our strengh to ensure that every child enjoys opportunities that only education can provide.

When things go wrong--and they sometimes will--and when the road you are trudging seems uphill, when the funds are low and the debts are high and you want to smile but you have to sigh, when care is pressing you down a bit, NEA, rest if you must, but doggone it, don't you ever quit.

Peace and power to you now.

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