I Learned Everything I Need to Know in Kindergarten

Today was a really great day. While we waited for the rally to start, we decided to go to the Holocaust Museum. It was a truly moving and emotional sight as we passed by thousands of shoes that were taken from Jews before they went to camps and photographs of everyday life before Jews were sent away to hell.
After a few tears shed there, we proceeded on to the Ellipse, where over a dozen different activists, artists, and everyday teachers spoke about what it meant to be in Washington today. Matt Damon even made a guest appearance, minus a lot of hair on his head. There were sentiments that teachers were under appreciated and under paid and that corporate America had no business being involved in education. One speaker called for merit pay of legislators based on their performance in Congress, which received many laughs and cheers from the audience. Signs peppered the crowd and read "Arnie DunCAN'T" and "Our Kids Are Not Test Scores". There were even small children who were holding up signs protesting high stakes testing and "teaching to the test". After the rally, we all began to march around the Ellipse, all the way past the White House, in case Barack and anyone else in there was looking outside.
What amazed me about this rally and march was the sense of community shared by all of these educators and supporters of education. There were delegations from almost every state in the union and no matter who you saw, they were willing to share a conversation, an encouragement, or simply just a smile with you. Wisconsin had the largest delegation by far and everyone looked to them as a rallying point, as an example of how poorly teachers can be treated and the lack of respect many of them receive. These professionals are not in it for the glory, the money, the fame. They simply want the best for future generations and because of that, they deserve the upmost respect. Yes, there were specific demands made at this rally, such as funding public schools and not charter schools and allowing educators to educate children as opposed to teaching for high test scores. But I also think that this was about respect, to show that this group of people would not stand idly by as people who have never been involved in education try to dictate to them the best way to foster success in schools.
Another fascinating point was that this was almost completely non-partisan. Yes, teachers are typically known as liberals or leaning more to the left. But the people there today were just as upset with democrats as they were with republicans. They don't care who proposes what law or which party supports what testing system. They only want change to come around and it doesn't matter to them which side it comes from. Maybe Congress and the White House should go back to school and learn how to cooperate with each other again from their kindergarten grade teachers in this time of national crisis, and then maybe they should learn to appreciate those teachers and listen to them also.