RA Action:

News from the NEA Annual Meeting

July 5, 2008

Outreach to Teach | Read-In | A Star Teacher | Press Releases | Videos

High Spirits, New Leaders Make for Exciting Independence Day

Confetti falls from the air as 9,000 delegates on the RA floor show their enthusiasm during the Fourth of July celebration.

Patriotic RA delegates, many decked out in red, white, and blue, celebrated the nation’s 232nd birthday and congratulated through rounds of applause three newly elected NEA leaders. One day after Dennis Van Roekel and Lily Eskelsen were elected President and Vice-President by acclamation, delegates voted Becky Pringle to the office of Secretary-Treasurer and Princess Moss and Len Paolillo to the Executive Committee. Delegates also voted to recommend Sen. Barack Obama for President of the United States.

Executive Director John Wilson opened the Independence Day celebration by saluting veterans and active armed services members in attendance and urging all educators to take pride in serving the public good. “Education is the cornerstone of our democracy and America’s success story,” Wilson said. At a time when the nation’s administration is focused on democracy overseas, “we should also take a profound look at what we need to keep our democracy thriving right here at home,” Wilson said.

The All-NEA Choir provided a moving soundtrack for the celebration, singing a medley of patriotic tunes.

Barbara Morgan, a teacher from Idaho and NASA's first Educator Astronaut, was awarded the 2008 Friend of Education Award. She presented Reg Weaver with a collage of items from her space mission.

Representing the best of the education profession and American ingenuity and innovation, Barbara Morgan, NASA’s first Educator Astronaut and an NEA member, was awarded the 2008 Friend of Education Award. Morgan, an elementary school teacher from Idaho, accepted the award on behalf of everyone in the hall because, she explained, “Everyone here is a friend of education.”

She paid tribute to the first Teacher in Space, NEA member Christa McAuliffe of New Hampshire, who perished in the Challenger explosion in 1986. After that disaster, Morgan said, there were some who called for an end to NASA, but the NEA lent its support.

Morgan said NASA now has three more Educator Astronauts in training. And she said NASA still needs public educators’ support for the exploration of the moon and Mars.

In an interview, Morgan explained that NASA needs teachers and students to carry out research on growing food for long space missions. She brought to the RA packets of basil seeds she carried on the shuttle as part of the space food project. NASA is asking teachers and their students to experiment widely with these seeds to see how they are similar or different from earthbound seeds. Students of all ages can take part. “Kindergarteners are great engineers and designers,” she said. (For more on the basil project, visit www.nasa.gov/education/plantchallenge.)

In the afternoon, President Weaver was joined on stage by 11 educators and union leaders from across the globe attending the RA as guests of state delegations. Among them was Thulas Nxesi, President of Education and General Secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union.