So, is it Teacher Appreciation Day or Teacher Appreciation Week? And is it a national "holiday" or not?
I can't say definitively, but it looks like both of these are just traditions kept alive by teachers unions and parent groups.
Either way, Twitter and Facebook are telling me that today is the day we celebrate teachers. They also tell me, as do my colleagues here at Michigan Radio, that today is the day all of the teachers in the Buena Vista school district are being fired and families forced to find other schools because the district is broke.
On Friday, many teachers in the Willow Run and Ypsilanti school districts were also told they would not have a job next year due to the merger of the two districts, again for financial reasons.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan was in Ypsilanti yesterday, the same day he issued a statement commemorating Teachers Appreciation Week, and a comment on our Facebook page seemed to call us collectively out for a mixed message:
Governor Snyder did call today for adoption of the Common Core standard today, a move many teachers support as they've spent lots of time and energy preparing for the standards. Most of Snyder's Republican colleagues in the state legislature oppose him on this issue.
I've seen about 10 teacher appreciation tweets pop up since I started writing this, and I'm wondering is the gulf between appreciation and support widening, or has it always been this way?
