I want to give a full-throated cheer to a former colleague of mine who has gone on to do some great work in public education classrooms.
Shanna Peeples, who was named 2015 National Teacher of the Year, these days works in the administration of the Amarillo Independent School District. Until this school year, she taught English at Palo Duro High School. She was named National Teacher of the Year and was feted in a White House ceremony hosted by President Barack Obama. We worked for a time together many years ago for the same newspaper, the Amarillo Globe-News.
What has Peeples done to earn praise from yours truly? She has invited the current education secretary, Betsy DeVos, to visit Amarillo. Come see what’s going on here, Shanna has told DeVos.
Lord knows the education secretary could use some on-site experience visiting public schools, talking to educators who work for public school districts and to public school students.
Peeples made her invitation known on social media. She has said she’ll bring the “coffee and donuts” to a meeting with Secretary DeVos.
I want to join the one-time National Teacher of the Year in inviting DeVos to Amarillo.
Look at it this way, Mme. Secretary: Amarillo sits in the middle of the Texas Panhandle, which voted overwhelmingly for the guy who nominated you, Donald J. Trump. This is ostensibly friendly territory. Amarillo ain’t Berkeley, if you get my drift.
DeVos, though, has zero experience with public education. Not as a student, or the mother of students. She ought to come here and take a look at the work being done by those who work for the very public to which the secretary also answers.
Nice going, Shanna. I hope the secretary accepts your invitation.
You are too kind, John! Thank you. And I sincerely hope she takes me up on it.
I am not “too kind.” I am just being truthful. I hope DeVos comes, too, so she can see first hand the hard work that takes place in these classrooms with which she has zero familiarity. Good job, young lady.