Indicators of Positive Instructional Practices

by: Bill Austin, M.Ed, NBCT

     Research has indicated that the presence of certain instructional practices within a classroom can positively impact learning and raise student achievement. While in past years we have focused on “programs” to increase student achievement we need to move toward more of a focus on “best practices” to continue to improve student scores.  Classroom environment is a very important part of our instructional program.  Have a look at some of the areas below and see if your classroom is student friendly.

• Are desks arranged in cooperative groups? Do these groupings change frequently depending on what is being taught? Differentiated grouping has shown great promise in recent years.
• Is your classroom literature rich? Regardless of what you are teaching your room should be full of books, magazines, and newspapers. Books should be both fiction and non-fiction.
• Are routines and procedures established for your classroom? Have students rehearsed these procedures and routines?
• Do students understand the concept of “Big Ideas” and “Essential Questions?” Learning is more effective when students understand why they are learning.
• Are you effectively differentiating your instruction? Differentiation doesn’t mean simply how you teach. Differentiation can be accomplished within lesson objectives, instruction, assignments, and assessment.
• Do you facilitate learning or do you lecture?  Allowing students to discover knowledge helps build schema and sets the stage for more learning.
• Do you know your students? Likes, dislikes, hobbies, home life etc.
• Do your students know you? Your likes, dislikes, hobbies, etc.
• Direct instruction has been shown to be most effective for student achievement if conducted correctly. Are you making sure students know what they are learning and why? Do you include an anticipatory set? Do you probe to determine current level of knowledge and understanding? Is your instruction differentiated in one or more of three areas above? Are you using formative assessments and redirecting instruction as you teach? Have you used “Backward by Design” approaches to your summative assessments? Are your expectations high?
• Are your biggest worries instructional? If they are behavioral, classroom management may be a factor.
• Are the students in your class excited to be there? Are students laughing and enjoying your instruction? Are students free to discuss subjects?
• Have you looked at the Data on your current students? Are you addressing their weak areas? Do the students know their weak areas?
• Do you model the behaviors you expect from your students?

While these best practices are not the answer to every situation or student in a school they are a great first step in making sure your classroom is a positive force in your student’s lives.

By William L. Austin, M.Ed., NBCT

Revised September 2019

Background

  

      Many of us came into the field of education to make a difference. We came to change lives. I am no different although my path was a little unusual; I came to education after a 21 year Air Force career to make a difference.  I have had a fair degree of success working with students, parents, and other educators. I have had an impact, however small, in the lives of the students I have taught. I entered the career with the excitement and enthusiasm that comes more from ignorance than experience. I was groomed, encouraged, trained, and mentored by some of the best teachers, administrators, students, and parents. I am a teacher and it is a title and a lifestyle that I am honored to have earned.

Leadership and Mission

     In the Air Force I was a munitions specialist responsible for the weapons, missiles, explosives, and pyrotechnics that our armed forces needs and uses in the defense of this great nation. I was literally surrounded by thousands of tons of explosives every day for 21 years. During Desert Storm I was the Production Supervisor for a large contingent of military aircraft deployed in the Middle East. My job was to supervise the receipt, safe storage, production and delivery of munitions for combat missions and for the munitions used in the defense of our installation. I supervised the work of a large number of personnel entrusted to accomplish the mission. If any one part of the operation failed, the entire operation failed. We could not afford to focus on any one area or operation while ignoring the others. I had to focus on the entire operation that was entrusted to me. I answered to others above me who had an even broader picture to worry about, who answered to others above them in a nearly endless cycle of leadership. By now many are asking what this article has to do with education. Well, the major difference between my career in the Air Force and my career as an educator is in the approach we use to get the mission done. In the Air Force my supervisors explained the mission to me and then asked me what I needed to get the job done. In education I am told what the mission is by people sometimes miles away, in buildings with no children, and not asked what I need to get that job done but rather told what I need to get the job done. In the Air Force if I failed after being given what I asked for I was removed from leadership. In the field of education, if I fail because of the people who told me what to do and how to do it, but they didn’t ask me what I needed to get the job done then it is still my fault. This is the biggest problem in education today.

Education is about Connections

    The process of educating students is a one-on-one process, the interaction between one student and one teacher. It is about a relationship, a connection that can’t be measure or quantified but is real.  Teachers who are unable to make this connection are doomed to fail and those who make the effort and build that bond change lives. This is the single biggest determination in whether a student will be successful or not, yet we put little or no value on this connection.

Teacher Data

 Good teachers don’t need data from national tests or endless spreadsheets to tell them what a student needs. Good teachers already know this. When I taught 5^th grade my most productive instruction took place during the first 30-40 minutes of class. Every day when students walked into the class they were greeted with the dreaded Board Work. The boards were full of problems for students to work on, questions to answer, and riddles to solve. What made this unique was that next to each problem was a student’s name… and after everyone had completed the board work students had to come to the front and solve their problem… It was mayhem… 20+ students all trying to solve their problem at the same time yet they loved doing it… The names next to each problem were not placed there randomly they were there because I needed to know something or the student needed to see something. It was meaningful, it was important. Students were allowed to help each other, and often as we went through the work students would come and explain their answer. This is real data at work, a useful application of data. It is individualized, it is teaching. I didn’t need a computer program that cost thousands of dollars and takes hundreds of hours to maintain to tell me Johnny needed to practice adding and subtracting fractions. I already knew that and already had a plan. I was a teacher.

 Data Collection Today

     The classroom of today is vastly different than the classroom I taught in 25 years ago. The change didn’t happen overnight it was like weight gain, it happened slowly over time and almost nobody noticed until one day somebody looked into the mirror. In today’s classroom we have data, lots and lots of data. We have state mandated assessments, we have common formative assessments, we have reading assessments, we have district mandated national assessments, we have teacher assessments, we have benchmark assessments, we have student learning objectives, we have grade analysis, we have standards mastery data, we have attendance data, we have health data we are rich in data. Data, data, data.  Let me say right now, for the record, data is not a bad thing. As I said previously good teachers have always collected data on students and used it to their advantage in the classroom. Today teachers don’t have time to use data because they are so busy collecting it. It is a miracle that instruction takes place a all because we always seem to be assessing students and loading that data onto some management system so people far from the classroom can tell us what we are doing wrong. And of course these folks don’t ask us what they can do to help us overcome some deficiency… they tell us what new commercial program we are going to have imposed upon us to fix the problem. It seems that if you need a new pencil sharpener in the classroom there is never enough money, but there always seems to be thousands of dollars for some new program that someone saw at a conference somewhere. Once that program is in place it becomes sacred. We are told to get on board or get run over, we are told to be positive and to “make it work.” We are so busy fixing one problem that another pops up, so we run to fix that problem and as we implement yet another program to fix the new problem another surfaces. It is Educational Whack-a-Mole. We are constantly implementing one new program after another either imposed by the Federal Government, State Government, District, or school. We are program rich and teaching poor.

 Solutions

     I would never presume to have all the answers to all the problems in education but as I see it there are a few common sense suggestions that might go a long way to helping our teachers and their students achieve the desired results. Will these ideas all bear fruit, maybe not, will everybody agree, absolutely not, but if we continue on the path we are now soon we will be so busy assessing and managing programs that instruction will be non-existent. To make any solutions work it will take the cooperation of administrators and teachers working together for common sense solutions.

When You Add Subtract

     Reducing work allows more time for instruction. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who would disagree with that. The use of technology in managing a classroom was suppose to make the job of the teacher easier and therefore freeing up more time to teach. In reality a lot of the technology we instituted only added work without removing what it was intended to replace.

Cases in point are new electronic grade books and computer based student attendance. Teachers now use Power Teacher to record grades and attendance, but the manual grade book and blue attendance cards that this new technology was suppose to replace, are still in use. When we added electronic files we need to stop using manual record keeping. Many of the curriculum maps and unit plans we use today are more detailed than the lesson plans that are still required. Some ELA units are 30-40 pages in length yet many building administrators still require teachers to fill out detailed plans which are, in many instances, just copied and pasted right from the computer products. When we add something to the workload of teachers we must take something away or risk losing precious instructional time.

  

Information Overload

    A pig farmer chided one of his farm hands who was constantly weighing the hogs, he remarked, “Stop weighing those pigs, they don’t get any fatter the more times you weigh them, feed the damn things.” We need to stop collecting so much data. Yes, we need information to effect change but when the cure becomes worse than the disease then the patient suffers. When you MAP test three times a year, you benchmark three times a year, you screen three times a year, you use common formative assessments three times a quarter, and you assess reading three times a year teachers can soon become overwhelmed collecting data rather than looking at what the data tells you.

     When data points to a problem, ask teachers why they think it happened. Don’t over react or over prescribe. In many cases the problem lies in the teacher not knowing what the student needed to know or in the way it was taught. I sat with a group of teachers a few years ago looking at a test question response graph. It showed that 90 % of students missed a particular question about telling time. We could have just said we need to double up our instruction on telling time and test our students again until we solve the problem. Instead, we decided to look at the question. The question asked which clock showed half-past the hour. The students didn’t understand the term “half-past” so it wasn’t a problem with telling time but rather a vocabulary issue. We can solve many of our troubles in the very same way.  Throwing money and programs at a problem seldom solves the problem.

Positive Movement

       Yes, some days we feel like we are playing Whack-A-Mole but those frustrations can be easily solved with a little leadership. Solved by asking teachers what they need to solve a problem and then letting them be and holding them accountable. We are teachers, we’ve got this.

    

Mary Edwards Walker

In January 1992 I was asked by the Shaw AFB Public Affairs Unit to speak before a group of Professional Women for their monthly luncheon. Here is the story I told to the ladies that day, a story that stay fresh in my mind to this very day.

 

     A few years ago I was given an opportunity to travel to the pentagon in Washington, D.C. as part of a delegation from Shaw AFB. We were sent to receive the highest award bestowed by the Department of Defense to any military maintenance unit, “The Phoenix Award.”   The Pentagon is a Massive complex housing some of America’s Greatest Historic Treasures and as part of our visit we were to receive a guided tour of this massive facility. I remember the tour well, traveling up endless corridors filled with military paintings of historic figures and glorious battles. Our tour guide, a young marine Corporal, spouted out facts and figures like an automatic weapon firing countless rounds one after another. She was loud as to be heard over the routine noise of business being conducted and she was very professional. The Corporal was well equipped for the job and looked especially good in her Marine Uniform.  I did note that as my mother would say, she had on sensible shoes, ready to walk many miles every day. It seemed to me that she was so accustomed to giving this tour that she could have given it in her sleep, but it seemed to lack any emotion or feeling, just facts and figures, and artifacts. It wasn’t long after thinking this that I was proven wrong. The last stop on the tour was the Hall of Medals; here all the names and deeds of the recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor are recorded in painting and displays. As we approached the Corporals voice changed, it became mellow and soft , almost reverent.  She asked a simple question, “How many of you know the name of the only female recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor?” The members of the tour looked at each other puzzled and we all seemed to shrug our shoulders at the same time. As far as we knew no woman had ever been bestowed with the greatest honor our country can bestow on a military professional. Our puzzled looks didn’t surprise the Corporal; she had obviously seen this look on the faces of many visitors to this shrine. She then proceeded to tell us the story of Mary Edwards Walker the only woman recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

 

     Mary Edwards Walker always stood out in a crowd, a woman small in stature but big of heart.  She had graduated from Syracuse Medical College in 1855 becoming one of the first woman physicians in the country this was an unheard of accomplishment in those days. She preferred pants even at her own wedding and was a staunch supporter and pioneer of woman’s rights.  In 1861 at the outbreak of the civil war and at age 29 she applied for a commission as a U.S. Army Surgeon and was flatly turned down. The reason for her rejection was obvious in those days but none-the-less devastating for Mary. She was rejected because she was a woman. Disappointed but undeterred she worked as a volunteered at Washington Hospital until November 1862 when she presented herself at the Virginia headquarters of Major General Ambrose Burnside and was taken on as a Field Surgeon but only on a voluntary basis. Dr. Walker spent the next two years on the front lines in the uniform of a Union Officer wearing the green sash of a surgeon and sporting a large feather plume from her small union cap. She spent every day caring for the wounded and dying of both union and confederate soldiers.  In the midst of a battle she could be found dodging bullets and performing amputations amid the blood and carnage of America’s battles fields. She was present and tended to the wounded and dying on the battles of Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga to name a few.  After two years of constant service on the battle field she reapplied for a commission and was told because she was a woman she was “utterly unqualified to become an army medical officer.” Undaunted but disappointed she continued in her voluntary work on the battle field. After much perseverance and determination she found one man, Major General George Thomas, who appointed her as a civilian Surgeon in the 52^nd Ohio Infantry and pay her for her services. A month after her appointment she was tending wounded on the front lines when the order came to pull back.  She refused to leave the soldiers screaming for help and stayed on to care for the wounded and dying. She was captured by the enemy and taken to Richmond Prison as a prisoner of war.  She remained at Richmond Prison tending to the sick and injured until she was traded for a Confederate Officer. It is said that Mary always took great pride in what she considered to be a man-for-man swap. Upon her release Mary continued her work and even went on spying missions behind enemy lines. Information she gathered was credited with saving Major General William T. Sherman’s forces from serious reverse and certain defeat.  Mary was eventually removed from the front lines and sent to work out the rest of the war at Louisville woman’s prison and a Tennessee Orphan’s asylum. After the war Mary was released from government service but continued to lobby for a commission in the army.  The Secretary of War at the time, Mr. Stanton, refused her request time after time and considered Mary a pest. President Andrew Johnson was asked about the injustice which was being done to Mary and he ordered an investigation of the facts.  As the truth came to light it was determined that for her heroic deeds in the face of the enemy and for great service to her country she should be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Finally in January 1866 President Andrew Jackson presented her with the Medal, yet still refused her the commission she had has always sought.  After the war Mary dedicated herself to the woman’s rights movement.  She supported such controversial issues of the day, like woman wearing pants, smoking, and having the right to vote. She was arrested many times for wearing pants in public. At one trial she asserted her right saying, “Sir, I have the right to dress as I please in a free America on whose tented fields I have served for four years in the cause of human justice.” The judge dismissed the charges against her and ordered that the police never again arrest her for wearing pants.  Mary had many enemies who lobbied hard to have her medal taken away. In 1916 her enemies persuaded the Congress to alter the Medal of Honor Standards in such a way that Mary and other decorated soldiers were no longer eligible to wear the medal.  An Army Board of Review promptly revoked her medal making it a crime for her to wear.  They even sent a detail of mounted officers to retrieve her medal. The Young Calvary officer who was placed in charge of this detail met Mary face-to-face on the porch of her home and demanded the return of the medal. It is said that Mary told the young officer that she had lost he medal and could not find it. The officer scoffed, “Only a woman could lose an item of such value.” And he turned and rode off with the detail of soldiers following behind.  Mary spent the rest of her life protesting this move and claiming her right to wear the medal. It is said that she was often seen wearing the medal at public appearances. Mary died in February 1919 at the age of 86.

 

     Mary’s descendents continued her fight for justice and sixty years after her death the army restored Mary Edwards Congressional Medal of Honor.  President Jimmy Carter, during a ceremony at the White House, presented Mary’s granddaughter with a new minted Medal of Honor. Upon presenting the medal the President remarked that he had heard that Mary had lost the original medal. Mary’s granddaughter, without a moment’s hesitation, reached into her purse and removed a tattered box containing the original medal.  You see, Mary could never bring herself to give up what she truly believed, and was ultimately proven, that she earned in the heroic service of her country.

 

     With the completion of the story the young Corporal turned with the slight glint of a tear in her eye and led us down another nameless corridor and left us all just a little more knowledgeable about the contributions of an American Hero.

Instruction? What Instruction?

By William L. Austin, M.Ed, NBCT
Instruction? What Instruction?

  Where is our instructional time going? Across America teachers have less time to teach and higher expectations than ever before. So, where is all our time going? Well I can tell you we sure have less of it than before in large part because of so many non-instructional demands. Testing takes a huge bite out of the instructional day, with MAP Testing, Universal Screening, State Mandated Readiness Testing, District Benchmark testing, Guided reading assessments which include a reading surveys, comprehension exercises, as well as comprehensive reading evaluations, and let’s not forget PASS testing, PSAT, SAT, ACT, STAR, Work Keys, EOC testing etc. etc. etc. Now if we throw in Anti-Bullying instruction, suicide prevention, SNAP nutritional instruction, and district mandated discipline code training complete with a testing component, the loss of instruction starts to mount. Now let's add fire drills, intruder drills, earth quake drills, tornado drills, and shelter in place drills which are all important, but we are not done yet, we need to add in assemblies for fund raising, walk around the school events, bike safety, spirit days, clubs, teddy bear parades, Story Book Character Parade, puppet shows, Christmas (oops Winter festival) programs, Thanksgiving meals or feasts in the classroom, and other assorted activities. What really amuses me is with all of this going on, I see the poor classroom teacher getting lectured on loss of instructional time because they plan a classroom celebration, an educational field trip, or an unscheduled bathroom break. Somebody needs to look at this issue who understands the problem. While I understand that not every school participates in all the activities and testing I listed above there are so many things I didn’t list such as the amount of time teachers spend collecting money or rolling coins for whatever charity the district or principal wants to support be it Breast Cancer, March of Dimes, Walk-a-thon, Heart Walk, Penny for Patients, St. Jude Leukemia Fund, etc. etc. etc. and don’t forget we need to collect the money for all the fund raisers we are involved in as well. With all this non-instructional stuff going on it is hard to believe we have any time left for instruction at all. And every year the call for more testing gets louder, the demand to evaluate teachers gets heated, and all the while they lose more and more time to do what they are paid for, and that is teach. If you are going to hold teachers accountable then they should have a say in what activities they participate in and which they don't. Politicians love to compare schools to businesses, can you imagine if Wal-Mart closed it doors and stopped selling for employees to practice a fire drill, or for an employee puppet show, or to test all of their employees on their stocking skills, or the use of a cash register? "Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers" we will be closing the store for 45 minutes while we walk around the store to celebrate something or to raise awareness for something, or to raise money for something. This is just not going to happen anywhere but in public schools. Teachers are some pretty awesome folks, even under these conditions they continue to give 100% to their students and manage to provide a good education in spite such obstacles. I just wonder where we could take our students, the heights we could reach, if only teachers controlled their time instead of, politicians and so many other folks who spend their time outside of the classroom.

Morning Car Duty

Morning Car Duty

By Mr. William L. Austin, M.Ed., NBCT

I am a teacher; I have a bachelor’s degree, two master’s degrees and am nationally board certified, I have eight years of college and the student loan debt to prove it, yet for fifty minutes every morning and forty five minutes every afternoon I open and close car doors. You see, I work in a school with about seven hundred students ages four to six and about two hundred and fifty of them, if not more, are delivered and picked-up from school each and every day by a parent. I am charged with the supervision of this task everyday for 180 school days. Much like our fast food society today we offer a curbside pick-up and delivery service. You drive up in the morning we will open your car door and help your child safely exit the vehicle and enter the school building for an exciting day of rip roaring fun and educational adventure. In the afternoon you drive-up we will verify who you are and match you up with the correct student and send you happily on your way. Our performance has to be 100% everyday and unlike my favorite college football team we can’t afford to lose one. I know this job is not unique to me or to my school just about every elementary school has a system like ours, a system that is tried and tested and very frustrating at times.
Let me start by saying that if you see yourself in any of my descriptions that follow, know we still love you and your child, but understand that teachers talk and sometimes share their experiences. Let’s start with the invention of the “Stow and Go” mini-van door. We have about thirty parents, who drive vans with this new modern convince, the ability to open the door with the push of a button from inside. The door can also be opened from the outside without the power assist. Now some parents and children absolutely delight in pushing that button and watching that door open, others not so much. Problem is we don’t know which. One moment some well meaning parent will be explaining that the door opens itself and that I shouldn’t, and the next, a parent wants to know why I’m not opening the door for her child. Some children are so obsessed with the magic of the button that if we open the door the child will have a fit and refuse to get out. In this case you would be forgiven if you thought the parent would apologize for their child’s behavior, when in fact, the parent blames us and proceeds to lectures us on the protocol of opening her door. Maybe we need a flashing neon light on the car telling us to touch or not touch? There are four of us who open doors every morning and we spread out under a roof that spans 200 plus feet allowing us to serve four customers at a time in varying weather conditions and makes the process very efficient or at least it should be. Unfortunately, we have parents who decide that the best time to check a child’s homework folder is in the morning while thirty other cars wait behind them, or the parent who stopped on the way to school at the local fast food restaurant and wants little Johnny to finish his McMuffin while you hold the door open and then asks if you would please take the trash. We also have the parents who are still dressing the child for school when they drive up and asks you to please tie the child’s shoes as they drive off. Then there is the parent who wants to ask questions about the field trip, PTA Meeting, school pictures, lunch account, or any other topic that we have sent countless notes home for weeks in advance. Or the child who only wants a particular staff member to open their door and must hold up the line while they wait for that staff member to open their door. We open the door for children who are puking as momma says, “will you please send them to the nurses office”, we open the doors of cars whose music is blaring so loudly you need ear protection and now you understand why the child can’t hear you in the classroom, you open the door to parents who are cussing and fighting with each other as they ignore the child we happily unload. We see these things every morning, moms who are in such a rush that they themselves are barely clothed when they drive up in scanty night ware with robes hanging open as they wash their children’s faces with mom’s spit and a napkin left over from the latest trip to the fast food restaurant. Some cars are so full of trash it spills out of the car onto the road and you are expected to pick it up when they drive off. We keep a bottle of hand sanitizer available to help with some of the more unique substances we find on the door handles each day. We get fussed at for not closing a door hard enough, or for closing a door too hard, for not allowing students in earlier, or for not holding the door open long after the tardy bell rings. We are either too happy, or someone doesn’t like our attitude. We only allow loading or unloading of the car on the curbside of the car for the safety of the child but if mom has the car seat for the new baby on the wrong side and decides she’s going to unload where she wants, it then becomes somehow our fault and blesses us out. Yes, morning duty is a mine field of fun but the daily hugs from the kids and an occasional thank you from a grateful parent makes all of the fussing seem insignificant. That is until afternoon car duty which is a story for another day.

The Stain of Stereotypes

Have you heard the story lately, you know, “I’m in the store behind a guy wearing $200 Air Jordan shoes, Under Armor shirt with gold and diamond bling hanging around his neck, his hat on sideways and a $500 Apple Iphone in his hand and he pays for his food with food stamps! Then he goes out and get in a Cadillac SUV!” I think we have all heard the story a hundred or maybe a thousand times. It’s my conservative friend’s favorite story. I guess it helps feed the misconception that taxpayers are footing the bill for a bunch of lazy guys who refuse to work. The truth is there may well be some folks who are abusing the system, in fact; there may be a lot of them, but you can’t believe or buy into the idea that all of the folks on welfare or some other form of public assistance are deadbeats? The overwhelming majority of people on food stamps have jobs, and work forty hours a week and because of low wages still fall below the poverty level. And just for the record the majority of folks on welfare are not minorities but white. Here is the most recent breakdown: White 38.8%, Black 37.2%, Hispanic 17.8%, Asian 2.8%, Other 3.4 (U.S. Census Department). When I look at someone using food stamps I think of the children who will eat today because of those food stamps, the child who through no fault of their own was brought into this world and deserves a good meal. There are restrictions on what can be purchased with food stamps, you can’t buy alcohol or tobacco and there is no guarantee that the food purchased will go toward feeding a hungry child, but I would rather four deadbeats defraud the government than one child go to bed hungry. Go volunteer at your local food bank or soup kitchen and see how many folks are wearing Air Jordan, or driving Cadillac SUV’s, I have, I know better, I sleep well knowing that my tax dollars are feeding the hungry and a few deadbeats.

Another Stereotype that bothers me is that all older white guys with gray hair are Tea Party Conservatives. Not true, and I wish those who have hatred to spew about our President wouldn’t be so ready to say so in my presence because I then have to correct them which often makes them look bad. I hate to have my patriotism questioned because I proudly supported President Obama’s election. I served our country for 21 years in the military across two wars and proudly fly my American Flag outside my house every day. I don’t question the patriotism of those who support an opposing view, I know they love their country, so what gives them the right to question mine. I don’t much care for those who look at me and assumes I voted for a white guy – I don’t vote based upon color but based upon who I think would best lead this great country of ours. Stereotypes are hard to overcome.

How about this for a stereotype, “You were in the military how could you support Obama?” The truth is that the military supported President Obama over Mitt Romney nearly 2:1. President Obama collected more donations from the military than Mitt Romney. While the leaders of the military try to stay well away from politics, as they should, it is clear that the rank and file military family supports the President. Of course there are some military folks who opposed President Obama’s reelection and that’s their right as long as they follow his lawful orders, they are patriots and deserve respect.

Here is one more that chaps my behind. 47% of Americans draw some sort of entitlement from the government. Well, that I guess includes my military pension and health care. Let me be clear, folks who give more than 20 years in the military aren’t entitled to anything, they have earned every penny. I gave more of me to this country than I am willing to tell people, and some have given even more. The American people hired me as part of the all volunteer force. Their sons and daughters didn’t have to serve because I did. My family sacrificed because of my service, the $22,000 a year I receive in military retirement is a small price to pay for your freedom. The same is true for those who receive VA benefits and disabilities from military service. Mitt Romney has five sons none of whom have served how dare he include me in his 47% remark. Stereotypes, you see, can be hurtful as well

There are so many stereotypes that people like to apply I find it better to judge a person buy what they do rather than what they look like or where they work.

Picking on Those Who Served?

For 21 years 6 months and 3 days I gave up many of my rights
– when national disaster struck I was called to serve others while my family
had to fend for themselves – I missed Christmas’ with my family, countless
birthdays, graduations, weddings, births, and funerals. For 21 years 6 months,
and 3 days I worked for pay that was considered below the national poverty
level, my family was eligible for food stamps for more than half of my military
career. I worked days-on-end without a break, without sleep, and without
weekends….. For 21 years 6 months, and 3 days – I lived where I was told to
live, I moved when I was told to move, I spent years away from my family, I ate
things some would not feed their animals. I was given experimental vaccines and
had no right to refuse, I was subjected to chemicals, and radiation some would
consider a health hazard. I comforted a crying wife over the phone because I
couldn’t be there to hold her, I slept on the ground or propped up against a
tree, I relieved myself in a hole in the ground. I sat in a bunker as enemy
missiles screamed overhead, people tried to kill me frequently because of the
uniform I wore. My children grew up surrounded by men with machine guns who
were there to protect them. While my friends back home bought houses, invested
in education, and live a life, I chose to serve my country. I am not bitter over opportunities lost, over time lost, or over the stability that civilian life afforded. I was and am proud that I served my country, served during Vietnam, serving for more than a year during combat operations in Iraq, coming to the aid of civilians during floods in Colorado, Earthquakes in Southern California, and Hurricanes in South Carolina. I am not bitter that my wife was afraid to answer a phone for more than a year of her life for fear of what she would be told. I wouldn’t trade a single minute of a single day. Why, because if I hadn’t served someone else would have to serve in my place. I didn’t ask for parades, medals, certificates, or national holidays to celebrate my sacrifices because others in uniform sacrificed even more. My country promised me a few basics if I served – low pay but pay for life if I gave the bulk of my youth and vigor to defending my country. Medical care for life because a military career takes a toll on a person’s health, a good education after my service and sacrifice were no longer needed and a small piece of dirt where I could rest with my wife after this life on earth is over.
Yesterday, while refusing to consider a 1% tax increase for the richest
people in the world, yesterday Republicans and a few democrats on the armed
services committee voted to reduce entitlements to military retirees. Firstly,
I am not entitled to anything – I earned those benefits - . Sen. John McCain
led his committee to vote for increases in what we pay for healthcare, for
prescriptions, and to reduce veteran’s benefits. I know we are in a tough time
in this country and once again I am willing to sacrifice for the good of my
country but why are the middle classes the only ones doing the sacrificing? Why
pick on those who have served, and protected this country? I am at a loss as to
where our country is heading. I don’t give a damn if you are a democrat or a
republican…… making military retirees pay the price so lobbyists and the rich
can pay less is simply wrong!!!!!! Please raise hell and let your congressman
hear your voices……..