There are tons of great people who are poor educators.

There are tons of great educators who are terrible people.

There are dozens of great educators that work in small towns and inner city schools that earn only one or two first divisions in their careers.

There are also dozens of great educators that earn multiple years of sweepstakes (and in some cases decades!) that don’t belong within a hundred yards of a child - for any number of reasons.

Being “successful” shouldn’t solely mean UIL success. IMO, that seems like a better first step. Stop tying our self worth and our worth in the profession to the number of trapezoids in our classrooms.

Perfect example: our elementary brothers and sisters work very very hard and get half the recognition a HS BD does - at best. But without that positive foundation none of that HSBD’s work is possible.