A Future Educator Talks About Changes She'd Like to See in Education

Katie Cunningham is a third grade student at the Our Lady of Perpetual Motion Elementary School in Glendale Valley, CA. She is an avid Irish dancer and loves to bake cookies and play Wii

I've wanted to be a teacher for sooo long. My mom says teachers are lazy, but I like Miss McCutcheon and I would like to help people just like her. During Summers I would go to Hawaii or Disney World and take care of all the animals.  It would be fun to tell students what to do and to send Nathan Wilcox to the principal's office if he was pulling people's hair.

First, I've been thinking maybe I don't want to be a teacher now.  What if I'm a really good teacher like Miss McCutcheon and the newspapers like the Wall Street Journal come do to a story on my class and even the President says I'm a great teacher, but they fire me instead of Miss Kearsey because she's so old.  Then I wouldn't have a job and I'd be homeless and die.   Why do you want me to die?  Don't you like me?  Please end Last in First Out policies.  I told my friend Matilda about this and now she wants to be a dancer instead of a teacher.  If this doesn't change you could be losing other great teachers to dancing.

Second, I also worry that when I get older teachers will do what's called collective bargaining.  That means if I'm a really good teacher, I get the same salary as Miss Kearsey.  That's not right.   I want to be paid a million dollars a year, but I can't do that this way or everybody gets a million dollars a year.  My dad said this is socialism.  He wants me to become a hedge fund manager. 

The last thing I worry about is that there won't be enough testing.  If I want to be a good teacher I need lots of data to make good choices like who does what worksheet.  We need more tests so we can have more data.

I know many of you are thinking why would I listen to a little girl who is still in school and not even a teacher yet? I don't know.  I do know I want to be a teacher someday, but my dad says before I can make a big decision like that I have to watch The Wire and he says I won't be old enough to watch that show until I'm 16.