How well are we heard?

There are many people involved in putting on a show. You have the actors, the musicians, the crew, the lighting director, etc. All of these people usually have to follow the directions given by the assistant stage manager. The assistant stage manager always answers to the stage manager who then relays and takes orders from the director, who is the end all be all of decision making. No matter what the profession there is always someone to answer to and usually the people at the bottom; the crew, the actors, the musicians, or as I like to think of them, the teachers and the students; have little say in what goes on way up there at the top. When approaching the question "In a time where policy and legislation shapes our profession (teachers, what role do we have in informing/changing our field?" I thought it best to speak with those who have been through a situation where they were required to fight for their right to be teachers. A few days ago the district brought all the teachers from the schools together to discuss technology in the classroom. A huge issue that was brought up was the use of “You-tube”. The Lenape regional district has blocked “You-Tube” on all computers in the schools. Tom Traub, a music teacher at Lenape high school, mentioned that he wishes to view other choirs performing in his classroom, and there are tons of videos on “You-Tube” that would be great for the kids to see. Most of the other teachers agreed that for their subjects there are videos that would be appropriate to show that are very informative. Tom mentioned to our supervisor, “the students are not 5, they understand what is and is not appropriate. They must be taught that if they violate rules they will be punished for it. By blocking innocent sights on the internet we are not allowing them to learn for themselves.” There was a poll that day on whether or not “You-Tube” should be let back on the computers. The majority of the teachers voted yes, but this did not hold. The board felt as though their original decision to block the site was fair and disregarded response of the teachers. So how much say do we have? Not much.