2013 National Teacher of the Year Jeff Charbonneau is proud to be a teacher and he urged 9,000 fellow educators gathered at the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly in Atlanta, Georgia to spread the word that public education is succeeding.
2013 Teacher of the Year Jeff Charbonneau spoke to 9,000 educators at the 92nd NEA Representative Assembly on July 5.
“Rather than succumb to the notion that we are failing, we must celebrate the quality education that we are providing while strengthening our resolve to further improve,” Charbonneau said. “Despite what we read in the paper, students and teachers across the nation are achieving in countless ways. It is time for us to recognize that public education is succeeding.”
The science teacher from Zillah, Washington, urged his colleagues to speak out and share all the wonderful things happening in their classrooms.
“I need your help. I need you to use your leadership abilities to their fullest to help redefine the message of education to match what we see every day,” Charbonneau told his colleagues. “We are not a nation of failing schools. We are a nation of schools that are continually working to improve and adapt to a changing world. Please continue to lead our students and our colleagues into a future that recognizes just how valuable an asset public education is to our society.”
