Advocating for our profession.
Is anyone listening & do we really need to do it? (Part
1)
by By Paul
Clinton, Past-President WAHPERD
We
have all had the following experience; you have just finished
what you felt was an outstanding presentation to your students
and as you gaze at their faces you would bet your next paycheck
that not a one of them really listened to anything you just
said. Interestingly, if you made that bet you would likely
lose that paycheck because most of us who have taught for
a fair length of time have also had another type of experience.
Years later, a student you viewed as a "slacker" and who you
would have sworn was not taking your lessons to heart comes
back to visit, and much to your surprise they are in great
shape and doing well, and tell you how much your PE class
helped them.
Advocating for your profession, similar
to teaching, can sometimes seem like a fruitless effort. While
passionately advocating for what we believe in we secretly
doubt that the message is getting through. Advocacy is also
like teaching in that the results of what we do are rarely
immediate and almost never predictable. Trying to predict
when and if that student who appeared disinterested in your
classes will take your message to heart is impossible but
we deliver the message anyway. To further our chances of success
most teachers also learn to deliver information frequently
and consistently. When I taught middle school our 6th graders
did not really seem to understand the sermon of health and
fitness that I was preaching but somewhere in the following
three years, after repeated exposure, I discovered that the
vast majority of them saw the light and started to understand
the importance of maintaining their health and fitness.
Recently I went through an advocacy
scenario that followed this pattern. My district eliminated
one of our two elementary school physical education positions.
I wrote a letter to the superintendent before it happened
and advocated for the re-instatement of the position after
it had been eliminated. No immediate result was evident and
I was sure that the message had fallen on deaf ears. One year
later the position was restored. Now I am not claiming that
my advocacy alone accomplished this or even that it was the
leading cause (many other people also spoke up including elementary
class room teachers), but it was part of the effort and in
the end someone listened.
I've learned that the hardest part
of advocating for our profession is not the time spent crafting
a message or rounding up support but dealing with the emotional
let-down when it appears that our efforts are wasted. This
is when we need to dig deep and remind ourselves that advocacy
is an educational process and as with teaching the message
needs to be repeated frequently and it may take time for it
to bear fruit.
I have also been advocating for our
district to establish a health and fitness committee. I am
in my third year of asking for this without success but this
year I had my first opening. My superintendent said that after
our next levy we could start to address the issue. We are
a long way from having a functioning health and fitness committee,
but we are getting closer and repeated advocacy is what got
us there.
Advocating for your profession,
is anyone listening? Yes if you speak clearly, often and with
passion.
This brings me to the second part
of the title question, do we really need to advocate? My favorite
pair of socks I bought in Death Valley. They have a picture
of a skeleton in hiking boots on them and the words "hike
or die." Today we as physical educators are traversing
our own Death Valley and our motto could similarly be "advocate
or die." With physical education positions being eliminated
or in jeopardy in numerous districts throughout the nation
it should be obvious that every single physical educator needs
to advocate for the profession. If you find that your job
(and the health & fitness of your students) is now on the
line you are already late. The time to start advocating was
yesterday. If you feel safe in your position the time to start
advocating is now to preserve that safety. If you are not
sure of your status in your school or district my advice is
to start advocating right now.
Advocacy is preventive medicine and
the first rule of advocacy is "do some it works." The
second rule of advocacy is "repeat the message," just
like we do with our students. The third rule of advocacy is
"be patient and persistent." If you keep watering the
plant it will grow.
Do we really need to advocate?
The answer is yes, advocacy is preventive medicine and the
only truly ineffective advocacy is no advocacy.
At a past Washington state AHPERD
conference, our keynote speaker Dan Miller said, "If you are
going through hell, keep going." Dan should know. His
personal story of struggle was highly inspiring. He went through
hell and kept going to become a highly respected physical
educator. Many of us are going through hell right now in our
professional lives but we have to keep going and continue
to advocate for what we believe in.
This is the first of a three part
series of articles on advocacy. In the next installment I'll
discuss school board presentations, the use of statistics
and testimonials. For help in crafting an advocacy message
consider attending Paul's advocacy session that will be available
at the AAHPERD National Conference in St. Louis in April Advocacy:
Crafting Your Message.
Paul Clinton teaches Physical Education at Lakewood High
School in Washington State. You can contact Paul at: pclinton@lwsd.wednet.edu.
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