I’m working hard to clean up my language. I’ve not tweeted, facebooked, or blogged an expletive in a full 48 hours. But the near-constant barrage of reports of meanness, stupidity, and just plain BAD warrants a few choice words don’t you think?

Don’t worry, I’m sticking to my moratorium on cursing even though the thought of losing so many new teachers every year makes me wanna scream “what the &%$@!”

I won’t bore you with a lot of words drenched in self-righteous platitudes – at least not in this post. Just throwing out some food for thought (with links to supporting articles).

• Half of all new teachers leave by their third year. Think about that.

• Nashville teachers, even after salary scale reconstruction a few years ago, are still underpaid for an urban district.

• And if salary is an issue, then Nashville’s failure at affordability makes it worse.

• While Nashville seeks to remedy the revolving door for new teachers, it must also strategically prepare for the mass exodus of retirees in a few short years.

• We must also think in terms of quality teacher preparation programs and a robust support system within the district. Apparently, Dr. Joseph is working on the latter.

Who is Butter Emales? (But her emails…)