Those of us who have spent years in education and witnessed many efforts for improvement and reform know the trend that urges education to be more like a business.
Educators are challenged to be cost conscious, customer minded, time efficient, task oriented, and product specific.  Time management is a huge factor.  Innovation and teamwork are also touted as essential.

While I do not disagree that all of these factors and tools do apply to improvement and management of an organization, I have never been able to reconcile that the work I set out to do thirty years ago in loving and learning with children is a business endeavor. It is a mission and service to people that I choose to embrace and to view our most precious people, our children, simply as raw material to be assembled into a product exactly like thousands of others seems offensive to me.

Teaching is more art and science than business. This point is arguable to many but I did run across something the other day in a small publication entitled KIDS ARE MY BUSINESS that finally helped me to reconcile the dilemma of education and business. The passage that caught my eye was written by Robyn Squire and puts the business of educating our children into perspective.

I hope you will accept my reconciliation for what it is intended to be.  This understanding is a salute to all those who show up at our schools each day to make a difference in the best ways they know how.  They improve the lives of those around them and, most of all, strive to teach all they possibly can each day because they love it!

KIDS ARE MY BUSINESS
By Robyn Squire
How lucky am I? At work each day
I get to help students learn and play,
and keep them safe so they will grow
into adults I'll be glad to know!

How proud am I? I guide today's youth
to strive for knowledge, goals, and truth.
I know I play an important part
in inspiring  them to take learning to heart.

How grateful am I? I value so much
the smiles that I win and the lives that I touch.
I love earning the trust of each girl and boy.
They are my business, as well as my joy!

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