As promised, we are going to begin sharing stories – these stories need to be heard – and many are being silenced through the use of fear tactics and the ever so silent mainstream media. So, with your help, we can make these stories be heard. Please read, please share, and welcome our first guest post by a teacher who wishes to remain anonymous.
I’ve had a radical change of heart recently. Those who worked with me in my previous position as an Instructional Coach (helping teachers to improve instruction and overcome difficulties with high-needs students) must be shocked by the links I am posting online. They might say that now that I’m back in the classroom, I don’t want to practice what I preached. They’d be at least partly right.
Wasn’t I the one reassuring other teachers that the new teacher evaluations, based 50% on student test scores, was exactly what was needed to bring credibility and respect back into the teaching profession? Wasn’t I the one who said, “Merit pay? Bring it on! I’ll be makin’ the big bucks!” Yep, that was me. It was frustrating to work with some teachers who didn’t seem to care about their huge responsibility for educating our youth. Reforming tenure and paying teachers based on their efforts made sense to me, at least in theory.
I tried to reassure the teachers I worked with that they were great teachers who had nothing to worry about, and ignored the nagging voice in the back of my head that said it wasn’t so simple –like what about Special Education teachers? I’d worked with one who had a huge case-load of kids, including Jose, a boy with autism who struggled socially and academically but was a gifted artist. I had offered to help Jose’s teacher administer the CSAP (Colorado’s standardized test) because she had so many students that required special accommodations.
I was asked to read the questions aloud to Jose, and stop if he became agitated. The previous year, Jose had felt so bad about not knowing the answers that he had gouged his fingernails into his arm. This year, they felt he had made great academic progress, and his improved scores would make the school look good. After a few minutes, I could see that Jose was getting upset. I suggested we take a break. He vehemently shook his head, determined to “be good”. When his tears began to flow, I insisted that we stop. Why were we torturing this young man, when, as a student with an Individualized Education Plan, we knew exactly what his levels of proficiency were? Still, I reasoned that it was necessary to assess all students, because we wanted No Child Left Behind.
The following year, we relocated for my husband’s career and I was headed back to the classroom. I was a little nervous; more is expected of teachers now than ever: instruction must be data-driven, lessons tailored to specific “research-based” methods, assessment both formative and summative. Still, I was excited to have my own students again, and felt I still had a lot of “teach” left in me.
My trepidation started in the summer, when my new school district sent me to be trained on a new writing curriculum. “This curriculum will raise your test scores!” the instructor boasted like a circus ringleader (pun intended). The curriculum was completely scripted, requiring students to write using a specific format consisting of at least one simple, one compound and one complex sentence, one instance of multiple modifiers separated by a comma, one simile or metaphor, etc. The idea is to make evaluating writing, a very subjective task, more objective (read: easy for under-trained, low-paid standardized test scorers to evaluate). Apparently it doesn’t matter if everyone’s paragraph reads exactly the same.
I tried to swallow back my disgust and focus on the way this curriculum made it easy for teachers to differentiate instruction. I was determined, as teachers almost always are, to remain positive, improve my instruction, to soldier on. I chatted with the teacher next to me, who said she worked in a district I had heard a lot about – one that piloted merit-pay. When I asked her about it, she shook her head in disdain. “It’s impossible to get the big pay raises unless you are in the principal’s inner circle,” she said. “I’m looking for work in another district.” I was shocked. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
On our first day back, the superintendent gleefully announced that our district goal would be to attain the state designation of Accredited with Distinction. I thought: who doesn’t want to work in a school that’s not just accredited, but with distinction? I wasn’t sure exactly what this meant, but it sounded great! Imagine my crestfallen look when we were told that this designation was based solely on growth on the state test. I wondered how this would really improve the students’ learning.
School started, and so did the principal’s walk-through evaluations. At least once per week, the principal would sit in the back of the room, writing urgently and mysteriously. A checklist of Marzano’s elements of effective lessons would appear on my desk the same day, noting elements that were present and those that were not. Evaluations were often on Fridays before big home games, vacations, etc., and teachers began to grumble to each other that it felt as if the principal were trying to “catch” us not using every minute of instructional time efficiently.
After my formal evaluation, my principal noted that, while my pedagogy, I had serious classroom management issues. Hadn’t I noticed that while the two students were debating in one group, the other group had already finished and were drawing a fish on the giant sticky note I’d provided for their brainstorming session? (Actually, I thought to myself, it was a dolphin, the subject of the short story they’d read.) “Chris would never do that in another class,” the principal told me. “He doesn’t respect you.”
“Wouldn’t do what?” I asked, “Draw a fish?” I was instructed, for the first time in more than a decade of teaching, to write a performance improvement plan, and observe another teacher. I resisted the urge to remind this man that I had taught successfully for four years in inner-city school while he was still in high school. Instead, I tried to see his point of view – shouldn’t all teachers strive for continual improvement? Still, I felt threatened. Teachers all over the country are being systematically intimidated by top-down, authoritarian rule designed to ensure compliance.
In spite of myself, I began to worry about my students’ test scores. I have always believed that teaching to the test is unnecessary; good instruction leads to good scores. I hadn’t done the greatest job of implementing the writing curriculum; not only did I not like it, but the students didn’t either. Plus, some students were threatening not to take the test seriously – they were fed-up with this annual rite of spring that had no relevance whatsoever to their lives. I could hardly blame them. In fact, one of my students opted not to take the test: Ann, a tough-as-nails ranch girl. Though Ann was no whiner, she ended up in my classroom, sobbing, telling me that the other teachers had berated her for not taking the test. I was flabbergasted. This was nothing short of emotional abuse – over one stupid test! Her mother later called to thank me for being the only teacher who supported her, and I shared with her my disdain for the test. Whoops.
The principal informed me I was not to disparage the test out loud – certainly not to parents. I vowed to behave better, though I didn’t really want to keep quiet. Being silenced has the curious effect of making one want to speak even louder.
This year, I did start speaking up. No one else wanted to confront the administration about our school’s focus on one test. Sure as the sun, I was called in to speak with the principal again, the week before Christmas break. He had a list of things I’d said at faculty meetings. “It sounds like you’re not happy here,” he said. I tried to explain that I was having a great year with my students (a project we’d done was featured on the front page of the paper a couple of months earlier), but I couldn’t help noticing the fall-out that was resulting from our school’s focus on test scores. I gave him some examples: Greg, who told me that another teacher asked him what he liked, so that she could use it to bribe him to do better on the test. He’d dropped out a week later. Carrie, who earns straight A’s and plays in orchestra and jazz band, came to me crying because the guidance counselor had tried to shame her for not taking an “optional” ACT-prep class in the morning before school.
I asked my principal what gains we would achieve by demoralizing students and making them feel like nothing but a test score. We debated. He suggested that perhaps, over the break, I needed to think about whether or not I really wanted to be there. Wow. Under the guise of wanting to make sure I was happy in my job, he had once again made it clear that I needed to shut up or leave.
I did think about it. I thought about the new teacher and principal evaluations, based on test scores. I thought about my own daughter, an avid reader, being given a practice reading test every Friday, and wondered how long she would continue to love reading. I thought what would happen to me if I decided to opt her out of the test this year and whether I could truly advocate for my own children in my current position. And I decided it was time for me to go.
This week I let my principal know that I am looking for work outside public education. I am heartbroken and will miss my students dearly, but I realize that I can neither teach them properly nor fight for their education while trapped in silent submission.
Wow. This is EXACTLY how I feel. Exactly!!!!!!!!! I am also ready to leave and have already updated my resume. I am avidly looking for another job, but it could take a while. It is a shame that this is what public education now consists of……test after test, merit pay, and top down authoritarian leadership. I can’t believe this is where we’re at. It’s truly heartbreaking, and I can’t wait to leave this oppressive atmosphere where teachers and students have been set up for failure.
I was working as a special education assistant and also leave the public education system. Being bilingual I wasn’t allow to speak Spanish with the kids that only spoke Spanish and had no other option to communicate. the climate in the classroom was very rigid, more kids where diagnosed with emotional disabilities, some of them because they couldn’t seat still and listen, sitting long periods of times. (I assisted teachers in general education classes as well) When AIMS came the kids did not understand the questions, special ed kids had to take it anyway. and not only the kids were tortured by the test, the administrators, the teachers, the climate in the entire school changed….after the testing we had one month before summer break. One month that teachers and students had nothing to do, after all testing was over and not worries ahead. It was clear the school was teaching for the test.
I, too, feel your pain, having left the teaching profession due to an administrator telling me “You don’t seem happy here.” Unfortunately the students are the ones who lose due to this. In my case they lost a teacher with 20 years of experience and a Masters Degree who was an excellent disciplanarian.
Sounds to me as if your exit from teaching had more to do with being criticized and under the gun during evaluation periods than anything. Perhaps you now know the feeling of being over observed, based on a handbook of ‘teacher expectations’~both unrealistic and unnecessary in the teaching process. I admire your critique of test scores as an evaluative basis, but would support you 100% had you more effectively taken on this administration-especially with your background as an Instructional Coach. (None of this should have surprised your, right?). Hope you’ll find your way back to teaching; those who back down and refuse to fight for educational equity need to be heard.
What causes me the most dismay, beyond this teacher’s giving up the ship, is that administrators in her school were so despotic (hey–that must be a real word; it didn’t get underlined in wavy red!). This teacher’s experience mirrors what is going on in every public school in the nation. Never mind that Denmark, who we’re help us against, doesn’t do all this testing to get good results. Well, or course not. Testing doesn’t cause learning!
I agree with you 100%. Something similar happened to me and I am no longer an elementary teacher. I will never go back. I’m glad you wrote this so more people start to understand what is truly happening in our public schools.
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I am thankful that I am on the back end of my career after 21 years. There should be spontaneity in learning! However, that is impossible when teaching to a meaningless test.
Thank you for speaking up, I feel the same way. I recently left that district in Colorado that piloted pay for performance. I walked away from one of the big raises – because I knew I would likely be fired in the not too distant future, as I have never been one to keep my mouth shut.
Now I work in one of Colorado’s many “failing” districts. I don’t know how much longer I can do it. I thought Obama was going to work to change the NCLB issues, but the Race to the Top, seems to be worse.
I stay for my kids. not the ones who are succeeding – but the ones who struggle, and come to me because they know I care. it is a really hard district to work in, it may be the hardest work I’ve ever done. I understand your leaving, I wish you wouldn’t but I do understand.
I am so sorry. I fear you will leave a hole in the fabric of good teaching. I hope you can find another way to support and help our children to learn and to love that learning.
Sounds too familiar sadly :(. Schools shouldn’t be ran as a business or companies,
Actually, private schools (ie a ‘company’ or ‘business’) are usually quite successful. Because, unlike unionized, govt run public schools who have little incentive to perform, private schools depend on success to remain in business. Their product: successful students. The more they churn ‘em out, the higher they can charge for tuition – almost always considered an investment.
The problem you may be trying to express is that the govt usually has no idea how to run a successful business.
Private schools work(not all actually do) in large part because of the family that value education and are willing to help and sacrafice time and money to provide the best education for their children.
Well, here’s the deal: not all private schools do actually “work”–and they can cherry-pick their students. I’d put my top public students against the top students from most (not all–there are some that draw only truly top kids) private schools any day. Bottom line: it all depends on the home. And despotic little tyrants won’t last long….they simply won’t get results, long-term.
Thank you.
As an unemployed licensed teacher in the dictatorship of Wisconsin, I’ve been reading and hearing more and more about all these standardized tests that we’re all supposed to adhere to and if we don’t make gains, this and this and that could happen and teachers could lose their jobs and blah blah blah! I’m so tired of it that I’ve gotten to the point where I’m seriously considering not renewing my license in 2014 and looking for work outside of public education. I’ve become completely disenfranchised with public education…to the point that my husband and I are seriously considering sending our son to a Waldorf school (or a Montessori school or something like that) instead of putting him in a public education setting. If homeschooled kids weren’t so odd, I’d consider homeschooling him myself…but he’s going to be odd enough without throwing homeschool into the mix.
While I understand that teachers should be paid based on merit (like any other job), the rubric is not as clear-cut. Teachers cannot be held 100% responsible for their students’ test scores and one test should not make or break a teacher’s career. Students know they can get their teachers in trouble by bombing the test and many will do just that for whatever petty reason they’ve come up with. We can show students the feeding trough but we can’t force their heads in and make them eat.
This NCLB and RttT (Race to the Top) have caused all kinds of chaos in education because now, instead of actually teaching students things that are going to be useful in future education and in life, we’re stuck teaching to these ambiguous “standardized” tests that have no meaning to the students they’re trying to assess in the first place.
Sorry, this is a topic that gets me really angry. I should stop…
Hello Renee – Homeschool! It is the best thing you could ever do for your child. Before I began homeschooling myself, I sort of had the same “They’re so weird!” image in my head. But – then I looked into it and found lot’s of awesome “non-weird” people who don’t want their kids to turn into robots either! And we formed a co-op. More then half of the moms iin our co-op are former public school teachers! (shocking right?!?!?) I will bet you will find the same if you look around you. :) Good luck in whatever you do.
Homeschooled kids are NOT weird. Well, maybe my homeschooled kids ARE weird. I mean they like to read avidly; laugh reading Shakespeare at age 10; study Latin; can carry on an intelligent conversation with any age (not just limited to talking to those within 10-12 months of themselves); enjoy figuring out math on their own; and declare they are doing a history project on William the Conqueror for fun! You will be pleasantly surprised by just how NORMAL homeschool families are actually.
Your children are successful because you support them intellectually. I venture to guess that they would be fine in any setting. Just curious — do they have to take your state’s standardized tests?
Homeschooled kids are only odd if you make them odd. Besides, maybe they are odd in a good. How many colleges are recruiting homeschoolers because of their SAT scores?
Another homeschooler chiming in to say that “odd” may be one say of characterizing unique individuals. I don’t mind it that I’m considered odd.
Just today my cool and excellent children were having a very animated conversation about how glad they are to be “weird”!
You story is almost identical to mine. Even the “Are you happy?” Way of getting the boot. Public schools are being systematically destroyed.
Absolutely agree with the story as well as your comment that public schools are being destroyed!
Scary how similar our experiences in Florida are to this teacher’s in Colorado.
God Damn-it! This pisses me off so much, I am seeing red. I so understand your feelings of defeat and fully support your decision, as will so many of us who are facing or have faced this Gauntlet of emotional, professional, and spiritual beatings. Understand, I wish you nothing but the best in whatever the future may hold for you – may you land on your feet and once again find your bliss.
What has me so pissed off is that this scenario is EXACTLY what the Oligarch’s are gunning for. Here is an experienced, caring teacher with SO much to give to the kids and her fellow teachers who is being so systematically scrutinized, criticized, demoralized, demonized, and a whole lot of “ized’s,” I haven’t thought of that he/she has finally tossed in the towel and is walking away from a lifetime of service and a career born of a deeply rooted passion for kids.
This is nothing less then “teacher cleansing” where teachers are systemically targeted for professional scrutiny and punishment based on salary, political reasons, or some other arbitrary or capricious reason. As the “business model” continues to invade schools like the tentacles of a corrosive cancer, we will see more and more of this type of decimation happen among our ranks. And don’t kid yourself, as Michelle Rhee continues to successfully lobby for the removal of LIFO and tenure, we will see our most experiences (read expensive) teachers get bloodied by the very tactics our author experienced. The outcome is predictable. Toss the expensive teachers on the curb like so much trash, gather all that salary and hire short-term contract scabs and pay them gobs of bonus money for successfully teaching to the test and raising scores.
We are an ARMY of teachers fed up with this! We are a sleeping giant ready to roar, claw back the oppression and RESTORE education to a colorful world where kids are free to explore the world around them in a safe and encouraging way. Fear has is paralyzed. Tradition has us waiting. The machine is counting on our passivity. And if we don’t act NOW, we too will be walking the gauntlet, getting bloodied, and being tossed out on our ear.
Oh how I so agree with you. Today I am beside myself with what is going on. It was a district wide message from our principals that: If you can’t smile walking down the hallway-maybe you should quit, if you can’t this that or the other -you need to quit. At one point our principal asked the secetary if anyone had quit. I sooo wanted to stand up & say I do! This was our welcome to a new year. All I can say is God help me, I am in trouble because I’m getting ready to say something someone is not going to like!
Thank you for sharing the story. What you have experienced is similar to mine and some other teachers that I know personally. Coming from a corporate background, I recognized the intents behind those initiatives, but the product of education is the growth of a person. A person has multiple facets instead of the ability to do well on tests.
Now I have chosen a different field of education. I moved to Taiwan in 2010 and have been an English tutor since. I am making about the same amount of money, but with a lot of free time. Most importantly I am able to be a real teacher. Both students, adults and children, and their parents show a lot more respect to the teachers. I have not taught in Taiwan’s public education, so I cannot comment whether it is different. In general students here do spend more time studying. The “education reform” in Taiwan has also been highly criticized by its citizens and educators.
This is a sad state of affairs, for caring teachers, for the children, for our country.
wonderful story! poignant to the core and a must-read for every teacher!
Wow! Good for you! The stress is just not worth it. Good luck with the next chapter of your life!
This is truly.an amazing story, and oddly.enough, i hear similar things in my charter school. Its truly.enough to discourage me from getting certified. Education sure has truly.taken a turtpn in the wrong direction!
too many people in positions of authority who do not understand the nature of teaching. That includes superintendents and principals. I have been fortunate in my 17 years in the classroom not to have experienced what is described in terms of the pressures, but that is in part because my kids do well on tests. Yet I am reaching the point where I am not sure I want to return to the classroom for another year. Maybe I should focus outside the classroom to try to save public education before we completely destroy it. Maybe I should finally just walk away – I will be 66 in May – and do something else part time to get the additional money I need beyond pension and Social Security.
The senior teachers in my building are leaving in droves. They are the ones that made our school an outstanding, nationally-recognized school. 7 left last year. By my count at least 6 more (not including me) are leaving at the end of this year.
We are destroying public education. But that’s no surprise. We are destroying our democracy, and we have already pretty much destroyed the American dream for most of our people.
Thank you for your story.
You put into words what so many of my former colleagues feel. I write former because I left the country after nearly 20 years at the same Title 1 school in Phoenix, to teach in Cairo, Egypt. And the interesting thing, while the school is private, it’s based on American public school standards and model of teaching. I can TEACH AGAIN! I don’t have to worry about single shot testing. I just worry about writing meaningful and instructive lessons. Kudos for your bravery. I wish you the best.
I think this is a must read for the parents as well. I have a son with special needs, multiple diagnoses. When we sat down for his 504 plan I explained the problems he had with CSAP. His principal was awesome, flat out said, “Don’t take it” It’s not worth it for him to go through all that.
As a homeschooler, I praise you for your decision, to stand up and not be intimidated. As a mother, bless you for looking at the big picture and the possible implications of future decisions on yourself and your daughter. As a sister, I urge you to continue to answer to your calling. Teach those that need it, there are plenty of venues where you can do good and not compromise your values or judgement.
Thank you! For standing up to the tests, for acknowledging that learning doesn’t come from formulas, for everything in this article!
As a 55 yo I recently took the practice tests in science.and.math for HS graduation. I found them to be fairly easy and would appreciate if the students graduating had at least this grasp of the basics.
If you are leaving public education over you failure to perform your responsibilities, you will be surprised how little sympathy you will receive in evaluations in the real world.
If teaching is hard work for you, I would suggest you find a profession that you find easy. That is the profession you are competent in.
Cheers,
Mr. Sparrow you completely missed the point. You must not be a teacher.
Obviously NOT a teacher! He has no clue how much work and time we put into our jobs. My husband often gets mad at me about it…”put away your papers, they don’t pay you enough and your students don’t appreciate you enough either.” It is extremely frustrating to be bashed by people who think that because they have been taught in a school, they know everything about teaching. Unfortunately our WI governor thinks the same way.
As a 55 yo I recently took the practice tests in science.(a period is not necessary here) and.(or here) math for HS graduation. I found them to be fairly easy and would appreciate if the students graduating had at least this grasp of the basics.
If you are leaving public education over you ( it is supposed to be “your”) failure to perform your responsibilities, you will be surprised how little sympathy you will receive in evaluations in the real world.
If teaching is hard work for you, I would suggest you find a profession that you find easy (perhaps you mean “easier”?). That is the profession you are competent in. (NEVER end a sentence with a preposition)
Cheers,
Here Jack, I edited your comment, I suggest if you want to look intelligent that you not have your snarky writing be filled with errors.
A former public school teacher who has been teaching her 6 children at home for the past 9 years. I saw early on the lack of professionalism in teaching, the dictatorship potential of administrators who moved up the ladder because they couldn’t stand being in the classroom themselves, and the lack of learning that was taking place in the classroom.
My kids are not odd, they don’t like to practice the piano or learn Latin and are more likely to quote Toy Story than Shakespeare, but they all love to read and can write a coherent paragraph (at least the ones over 9). I think there is a lot of potential out there with all the disgruntled teachers in the form of charters, private, tutoring, etc that hasn’t even begun to be tapped.
Wow, thank you to this teacher for having the courage to speak out. In recent months I’ve had several conversations with different teachers who support ESL and special needs kids. Their frustration on how little they can actually support their students is intense. It amazes me how many teachers and principals actually choose to homeschool their own children. The idea behind test scores was noble but the practice is impossible. An education needs to be customized to the child in order for that child to truly succeed. If the focus is on the test, then customization is impossible.
Have you considered coming North to Canada? I’ll admit we still at times feel like small pockets of advocates for change in teaching and learning but those are growing every year and across every province in both the public and private schools. My experience in Alberta has been one where it’s the administrator building fires under the old school thinking and encouraging, scaffolding, supporting and pioneering a move toward collaborative, differentiated, meaningful, inquiry based learning and continuum based and self-evaluative assessment for both teachers and students. Yay Canada!
Yep. Hit the nail on the head. It will be too late before the administrators and legislators figure it out. No wonder other ways to achieve success have been bursting from the underground education scene.
I love teachers! Are those tests optional? It sounds like they are. I would like to urge my children not to take them if possible but don’t know if they will be bullied into taking them anyway.
I was informed if more than 5% of a school population opts out of our state tests (in Pennsylvania), then the entire school would fail. So – the gov’t supports parents having a say in their children’s IEPs, GIEPs, 504 plans, etc, but ties our hands when it comes to the state tests. As a parent, this infuriates me!
Thank you for sharing. For those teachers staying, we need to continue to fight against silent submission and speak out and speak up. Watch the movie “Walkout”, 2006, to get a good picture of the fear that speaking up for your beliefs involves. It is scary. But not speaking up is scarier. Thank you again.
Thank you so much for your testimony. EVERYONE in Ameica needs to read this and understand what is really going on in our public schools.
I have a heart to teach, and have always encouraged teachers, who give of themselves for others. I wrote letters of objection when NCLB was in process, as I don’t believe testing has anything to do with learning. I am thankful that Texas is a homeschool friendly state, because I have taught our 4 children at home for the last 20 years. They are well adjusted, friendly, and able to have intelligent conversations with people of all ages. They never had a standardized test until the PSAT or SAT in High School, all have done above average, two are in college on academic scholarships, and two are still at home learning. Our objective was to help them LOVE to LEARN, and we have succeeded at that, by allowing them much freedom in what they studied. The required courses were minimal, and they thrived on being able to learn everything! Now that my children are older, I would like to go work in the public schools to help children learn to love LEARNING; unfortunately I would be one of the rebels, who wouldn’t teach to a test. America needs creativity, and test taking is strangling any sense of creativity. I want to encourage you all to keep up the good work in helping children to think and learn – and love it!
Parents, we need your help! It’s GET WITH THE PROGRAM OR HIT THE ROAD for us teachers in public schools. We WANT to help your children learn properly, and most of us know how, but the system won’t let us. The more restrictions, prescriptions, and test performance pressures are put upon us under the guise of accountability measures, the worse this gets.
By the way, for schools which encourage rather than stifle childrens’ love of learning you need to look no further than the democratic education movement (e.g. Summerhill, Sudbury Valley). Our overlords have ignored this and other progressive approaches entirely in favor of being able to reduce everybody to a meaningless number so they can earn votes and approval for waving around punitive measures like school reconstitutions and massive salary cuts for teachers without ever having to actually learn one thing about education, children, or schools.
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I am sorry to hear about your story. You demonstrate great courage in your decision. I too would love to make the decision you have made, but the consequences I face make it impossible. If I were to make the same decision you made, I would lose my mortgage and the food I provide my two children. I am a smart person, but I would find it very difficult to find any other career that would support the what I have now. I would lose a lot and when children are involved, it makes it difficult. Be well.
GREAT job! Your story is mine as well. This is my first year out of teaching after 18 in the same grade, same district, same school. Devotion gets you NOWHERE! I am now writing a book about this very sad story —- our own! Our voices must be heard. I’m about 1/2 way done and looking diligently for a publisher – if anybody knows one!!!
Seems like too many of us have the same story. After leading the school into technology, winning many awards, and grants, in addition to teaching full time and obtaining a masters degree. I too began to speak up and was told “you need to leave, you’re causing trouble.” I walked away from a 15 year teaching career to the private sector where my stress level will never be what is was. Speaking with my teacher friends re-affirms I made the correct decision to turn my back and walk away.
Wow. I can’t tell you how many teachers I know that feel the exact same way. I teach the ELL kiddos and feel that I am working so hard just to get them to speak, read, and write English. Should I really get worried that they don’t pass a standardized test? I want them to pass the AZELLA because it is directly related to their English proficiency. Most of the time they don’t pass the standardized test, but they grow tremendously in all other areas. Isn’t that what we should strive for? If I am going to get punished for my ELL students not passing a test, how can I continue teaching? Hopefully if they are going to keep the pay for performance, then they need to come up with a plan for those special needs kiddos that have more to worry about than standardized tests. Who is going to teach those kids if they have to worry about passing the test?
Wow- this scenario sounds familiar. Last year was my last year as a teacher. I miss it dearly but could not continue to “fight” admin.
I applaud you for standing up for what you believe is the right thing and am sad at the same time that education in the US is in such shambles. I read through your article thinking “Yes! Thank goodness someone is speaking out- from the inside”. I am 100% an advocate for Opting Out as far as NCLB and RttT. I am however, a bit taken aback by one of the commenters statements. Renee Anne made a wonderful argument in her first paragraph but followed it up with an extremely discriminatory statement that literally has me fuming. She said “If homeschooled kids weren’t so odd, I’d consider homeschooling him myself…but he’s going to be odd enough without throwing homeschool into the mix. ” WOW! What a sad and uneducated statement, nevermind the discriminatory nature of it. Thank Goodness she is an “unemployed” teacher. It is for statements like this that my daughter IS homeschooled. That is the last person I would want teaching my child. I hope my daughters school life is full of unbiased, enjoyable learning that she can reflect back on and remember fondly. With our family and community as her school, I can rest assured she will never have a small minded “teacher” attempting to educate her.
None-the-less, kudos to you for taking a difficult stand and being brave enough to speak out! I wish you the best in your ventures!
PS- My father is a lifelong educator and administrator and I appreciate the care and respect he has for ALL persons who are able to learn in ANY environment.
Hi Erin,
My first reaction to her statement was similar to yours but I’ve also come to expect statements like that from mothers who do not want the “full-time” job of homeschooling their kids. It is an excuse mechanism…a cop-out if you will. Kudos to all homeschooling moms out there, and all public school teachers who love teaching and stand up for what’s right. I would like to see an alliance with homeschooling parents and public school teachers to work together without the interference of bureaucrats.
What you describe is tough.
This is a question I have always had in the back of my head…why do teachers bend so readily to authority. We have a union and are professionals. We are in a one of the most prime positions of any occupation in the country. Do we realize the amount of occupational and professional freedom we have?
Your Principal seems like a douche. A goose-stepping douche. So what? He tells you you are doing poorly in your class by saying one student acts a certain way in your class than others? What is this evidence of? People act differently and inconsistently in certain social situations. What evidence does he have that this is a bad thing?
The profession is teaching, not administratering. As such, administration are glorified secretaries – nothing more – they are there to assist teachers. Next time you get a negative assessment ask for the research behind their judgment.
Unfortunately, I was a second career changer when I went into education. Little did I know just how bad administrators could be, and I found myself fired illegally over a stupid FORM (but the idiot principal simply didn’t want me there) and I cannot get back on my feet financially. I am 57 years old and am sole support. I have not been able to find any kind of stable, full time work in the past four years since this happened to me.
Move to South Carolina.
I can’t even begin to afford to move. I am in Oregon.
Why South Carolina?
Now the Colorado Springs District where I work is saying all kids need to go to college. Well, I have a Bachelor’s and 2 Master’s. The superintendent said that having 2 Masters is stupid. I am stupid for getting stuck in a district on a pay for performance plan. Those of us who are not on the plan are frozen on salaries from 2 years ago. Yep, the education I received means nothing to the super.
This is precisely why I left teaching! Good luck to you!
Wow! This all sounds a lot like what I have experienced trying to get my child through the public school system for the last 12 years. I am a mother of a child that was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 5. I have been through literally HELL for all the year’s he has been in the public school sysyem. He has attended school’s in 6 different states and knowing what he excelled in and what he didnt, the story was almost alway’s the same in each school. IEP & 504 plan’s that just simply did not work. And of course he was to be pumped full of drug’s just for him to “get through the school day” I knew that isnt what he needed (as it only hindered his brain function actually preventing him to learn but kept him in his seat so the rest of the class could pay attention) and after talking to ALL the different school staff (principal, vice principal, teacher’s, aids school counselors), doctor’s, nurses, counselors, head shrinkers of all different degrees the answer most common was that I could keep him medicated for school or else take him out of school. I havent been in a position to homeschool nor do I have $$ to send him to special school for “kids with learning disabilities” I was tied to no other option. So as he went through the school grades up to now @ 17. He has no self esteem because of the standard test’s of the public school system. Even though he was reading @ college grade books in grade school he didnt do well in math so they wouldnt let him move forward with what he was good at. Although the teachers knew how smart he was and in what areas, they couldnt do anything for him as they had to stay within the laid out parimiter set by the school system. I used to dream of opening and running a school that would cater to children that don’t “Learn the same as the mainstream” (I don’t call it special need’s) I’m not talking about children with truely mental disabilities as with down syndrom etc. Althoe if my idea was to succeed that could be a branch also. I am talking about kid’s with “ADHD” and “learning dissabilities” as the mainstream has deemed them. And hire teacher’s that flurished in an environment for teaching & learning knowing that heart felt teacher’s are some of the most creative and instinctual creatures God ever put on this earth. And that the right teachers could be patient and use their problem solving skills to enhance each child to be the best they could in whatever they excell at but also introducing other subjects without it being crammed down their throat. But in researching this prospect, I found a lot of “politics” that no matter what would be accomplished FOR THE CHILDREN that if they couldnt pass the standardised test’s that the school would be shut down. I think this is wrong and unfair. Now I see it’s on both sides too for not just the children but the teacher’s too. I wish I could open that school and hire those teacher’s who care to figure out how a child lears and run with it and see just where that child ends up in life. I dont know if my experience is off subject but I was emotionally overwhelmed with the similarities in this story. Being a Mom I am also a teacher of a different sort and made to feel like an alien by the school system. Iv known a LOT of teachers and can tell you who are true teachers and thoes that should find another position for their education. And Im seeing that the truely good teachers are suffering for the regulations being put on them and in turn our children are suffering for it.
In case your interested, my son is now 17 and has NO self esteem and has refused to participate in classroom instruction since he was 13. He just took his G.E.D. pretest scared & reluctantly and passed it within the top 20% of high school students. The director at the college where he took it is anxious for him to take the official test to see how he scores and so is he for the first time since gradeschool. I cannot express how relieved I am for him to be out of the public school system. But feel like I am scared for life due not to the teachers but to the system regulations.
*Sorry about the lack of correct writing, punctuation & grammer in this. I know I should be ashamed knowing Im writing mainly to teachers.* *Smile*
*All Teachers Be Blessed *
This is exactly why so many of us have decided to homeschool. Children should be able to learn at their pace and not made to feel bad if they don’t measure up in some way.
Sign up to be a homeschool consultant!
Fortunately (or unfortunately), there will be hundreds of newly graduated teachers ready to take your place. They may be new (and usually highly energetic – even if they don’t really know what they are doing), but they also work cheap. Sounds like the principal got what he wanted.
I taught for 16 years beginning with ELL to honors Science, from Sixth Grade to University level. I was also an Administrator for six years. I became an administrator so that I could solve the ills in the classroom but all I got was more frustrated, except know at both ends. My first administrative job was at a Secondary Fundamental school in southern california. As the Dean of Students my job was discipline and trying to solve the campus gang problem. I put forth everything I had learned in the classroom and had a great first year with who I thought was the most important element of any campus, the students. The Principal was a joke and very political, in fact until we had our falling out she would leave campus and direct everything to my office. She almost ended my career before it had begun. I could not wait to get out.
And then the best thing happen to me. I was hired at a 1500 student middle school and became a team with my fellow admin. The job normally ran 16 hour days but I had found a position that i loved, my whole life in education was re-found. While in admin I learned that about 5% of teachers are lazy and waiting for a paycheck. I call these my 20- one year teachers. They should have experience to do anything but instead they teach every year as though it is there first, except the dose of ripened bitching. I always avoided the teachers lounge it is the place i referred to as the “vipers den.” It breaks my heart to hear that the 5% still run our education system. They are bad for students and the rest of the system. I had to leave all my positions because of PD or i would still be out there raising hell at every level. Please don’t walk away from fighting the good fight there are students depending on you.
Fed up teachers! Don’t give up the fight. This is war…if you can’t handle the front lines anymore then infiltrate the enemy’s system, I may sound naive but what if all the feed up teachers start taking jobs i’m curriculum development, test grading, test making, text book writing, dept of EDU jobs, college education course instructors, we can begin to change the attitudes and climates of others working in those organizations. Stop letting those who aren’t as qualified as you run our system! You, the ones with experience and know how should be wallslks and roves of the education system, not big corporate money grubbing
Fed up teachers! Don’t give up the fight. This is war…if you can’t handle the front lines anymore then infiltrate the enemy’s system, I may sound naive but if all the fed up teachers started taking jobs in curriculum development, test grading, test making, text book writing, dept of EDU jobs, college education course instructors, we could begin to change the attitudes and climates of others working in those organizations. Stop letting those who aren’t as qualified as you run our system! You, the ones with experience and know how should be the walls and roof of the education system, not big corporate money grubbing execs. Support the back bone still at work in the classrooms and change what you do not like. You have the most power now that you are out of the classroom. Use it for REAL change!
Well said!!! Thank you for speaking out.
While I am sorry for you and the others whose stories are told here, I am appalled to read through all the comments and find that most of them contain embarrassing spelling, grammar, and word usage errors (“then” for “than,” etc.). The commenters have solidified the impression that teachers teach because that’s all they can do. I frequent many teacher forums and never cease to be amazed at how uneducated teachers sound in writing.
These are just not typos…they are mistakes that reflect people who either did not take their own educations seriously or simply do not care to present themselves with dignity. We can’t take you seriously if you can’t or won’t do that for yourselves.
Wow! – sounds like teacher horror stories from Jacksonville, Florida.
I taught in an inner-city system for 11 years. Over that time, 86% of my kids passed the state graduation test (Social Studies) the first time they took it. In those 11 years only 4 didn’t pass it. I was not an effective teacher. I didn’t follow the district’s policy for a “print rich environment” (Seniors in AP classes do not want nor need to make posters for the classroom walls) nor did I embrace the district’s policy of incorporating “urban material” into my lessons (I am supposed to be teaching HipHop instead of American History?).
Each year for the past 5 years the district has adjusted its policy for a continuing contract and even though I have met those requirements for the previous year, I have been unable to meet them for any current year (Oh, wait! They don’t announce the new policy until after the school year starts… gee those 9 hours I took last summer don’t meet the new policy). So when I and 690 of my best buds got laid-off last spring I decided that perhaps teaching wasn’t for me. After all, for 2 years running I had 100% passage on the GradTest I had kids getting 3′ & 4′s on their AP tests so obviously I wasn’t a very good teacher.
They talk about merit pay and teacher evaluations. I was not a butt-kisser and the principal continued to harass me about stuff that was pure BS. I obviously would not get any merit pay! The English teacher across the hall and I team taught across the cirriculum, but that didn’t matter (BTW she also had a 100% pass rate and got laid off). The only thing any one cares about is covering their butt and looking good for the folks in admin.
The union is more interested in keeping benefits for those who are still working. Seniority it the only thing they care about, screw the kids! Let’s keep Ms Whitely (who is 75 years old and has been teaching for 50+ years) in the classroom, she is a good teacher. Why is she a good teacher? She has been teaching 50 years how could she not be a good teacher! So what if she falls asleep during class…
So now there are 45-60 kids per classroom (I wonder what that will do for test scores and graduation rates?) and good teachers who still have their jobs are looking elsewhere… Why? Because the BOE is projecting a $60 million short fall for next year and teachers are going to be laid-off again this spring. This district has not asked for a operational budget increase (levy) since 1996, so you have to wonder if they really care about the kids…
I am done, through with teaching in public schools.
my story exactly here in Oregon. Not only did I leave my job at the end of the year, but my concern for the condition of education compelled me to homeschool my 6 year old son.
I am not a professional public school teacher but come from a long line of educators – you could say it is in my genes – which is why this site caught my attention. While I cannot comment specifically on the points raised in this essay, I feel compelled to offer my opinion on what I see as a disturbing trend in how professions are using “science” to regulate and judge competency in its field.
I work in health care, both in providing care and educating future physicians, nurses, lab personnel, etc. Our new dogma is “evidenced based medicine” which has become, to me, a catch-phrase to mean that individual responsibility for evaluating the patient in front of you has been replaced with the expectation that you use “medical profiling” to determine what is best for your patient. Your mention of “research based” methods seems to me to be the education professions version of “evidenced based medicine”. As soon as I read that, I knew exactly what your frustrations most likely are. Like evidenced based medicine, the individual is sacrificed to the god of statistics: if you fall into a certain pre-determined category (age, sex, race for example) then you undoubtedly need “x” care, regardless of your symptomology (or lack), your family history, your lifestyle and / or outright wishes. If you refuse or request modification of the accepted medical algorithm you are told you are not a “good fit” for the practitioner and to either conform to the requirements of your medical profile or to drop out of the medical system altogether.
It saddens me, but does not surprise me, that every profession is being subjected to this false idea that best practices is based on dissecting the individual into bits and bytes which somehow allows categorization aimed towards making a subjective evaluation into an objective one. One which is supposedly “fair and equitable” to both patient (student) and health care provider (educator), but ends up being nothing to anyone. The loss of meeting individual means does not mean that everyone is treated the same or fairly. We seem to have accepted the fact that egalitarianism means seeing everyone exactly the same way instead of seeing individuals with unique and specific needs. What one person needs to succeed with life is not what another may need. And isn’t providing each person the chance to that meet that need a more fitting definition of treating all equally?
I oppose “evidence based medicine” because it is medical profiling and reduces the individual into a statistic; I sense that this “no child left behind” scenario is the same insidious approach to education.
it is time reassert the value of individuality – to recognize that you cannot take a complex entity (a person) and break him or her into “atoms” for the purpose of objective evaluation to ensure across the board fairness.
Thanks for sharing. Reading your story, I thought, “This is exactly what my wife says all the time!” She is also a teacher in Colorado, and she often comes home with tears in her eyes. It’s not just the outside pressure (I guess some administrators think if they can just drive their teachers like pack mules, they can raise scores; and the parents and the media like to blame teachers for everything), but she is also so hard on herself. It doesn’t matter that her students actually perform pretty well on the tests, the constant stress is wearing her down. After only 5 years of teaching, I don’t know how much more of this she can take.
I applaud you for walking away from a winless situation. I hope if enough teachers walk away, if the system will eventually change…
Perhaps you could earn income by acting as a tutor for homeschooling students. There are many parents who run into “snags” along the way; especially in the areas of writing and mathematics…and from what I’ve read in your post, your educational philosophies and goals for instruction are very like-minded and coincide with the majority of homeschooling families. Just an idea I wanted to share as this would be a way for you to continue in the “education field” and so what you love most: TEACH.
Thank you for writing this. I’ve been teaching for 14 years in Michigan and it sounds like the situation here is similar to Colorado. I’m afraid this will be my last year as a teacher as well (if I can make it to June). I feel very much as you do. And as you do, I have children in the public school system and I worry about the quality of their education. My son figured out that if he got the questions wrong on the computerized MAP test that the program would kick him out and he could be done! So, that’s what he did…and he scored in the 10th percentile (even though he’s at the top of his class). The teacher and principal were none too thrilled with this and we were both called to the office! I had to laugh (privately, of course!).
Good luck in your endeavors.
I am retiring in June after 35 years in the classroom. I will really miss the students, but not the BULLSHIT.
Yes, I figured that my comment would still be “awaiting moderation.” Teachers can’t take a single bit of observation that they might be the least deficient. This proves it. Congratulations on your open-mindedness and fairness.
Moderation takes time (my comments still await it, too — but then I only posted them today;-)
As to us teachers seeming touchy, there is something to that. Before I became one myself, many teachers looked a bit stiff, cliquish, and touchy to me, too; and merit based pay sounded reasonable. Well, since I became a teacher myself (thinking I could do better), I have learned a few things:
(1) Teachers get challenged by so many students every day that a certain automatic defensiveness develops. That’s just a survival skill, a professional hazard, so to speak.
(2) We teachers are truly beleaguered in our jobs — from all sides: students, parents, administration, school boards, superintendents, politicians, the media… everybody. Naturally, that leads to a degree of paranoia and the sense that only other teachers can understand your troubles. Usually only other teachers can. Our own spouses (unless they work in a school) are often quite clueless. Teaching in our public schools is one of those things where you just have to have been there to know what is going on, or to believe it — a bit like war. You don’t see this if you just visit, nor even when working as a substitute. Presenting a caring and friendly face to the outside world is one of the things schools do well. (because they have to)
(3) I worked for twenty years in a number of careers in academia, the private sector, and also for government contractors. I had high and low jobs, and I experienced a lot of hair raising things. But none of these work environments was ever as hostile and inhumane as I have discovered today’s American public schools to be.
As the Race to the Bottom soars, keep up the good fight! I have taught for 40 years: preschool, primary, and secondary. Only 8 years were in public school and 2 more as a substitute. During 2 years of teaching primary in public schools near Albuquerque I frequently spoke out, against NCLB, and questioned publicly why teachers’ lunch duty included serving the food. I thought I had nothing to lose; the career teachers were too afraid. I was sternly interrogated because my 1st graders were below the expected reading score by October. The final straw was when I told the principal: ‘In teacher education we encourage teachers to make their own decisions about curriculum and methods’. I resigned after 2 years. My evaluation was scathing, loaded with insignificant incidents masquerading as ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’. For most of my career I inspired teachers to help children learn the ‘old fashioned’ way, using The Project Approach, integrated curriculum, the philosophies of John Dewey, the Reggio Emilia approach, and that 4-letter word, play. I mention these because they are all contrary to testing frenzy and competitiveness. In the early 1990s I sent a memo to my boss, an Assistant Superintendent at the State Board of Education explaining why early childhood educators were opposed to standardized tests. He was an ‘administrator’ not pleased with my memo. High stakes tests for children and teachers are now a part of public school prekindergarten programs. I often wonder what happens in ‘principal training school’ a.k.a. Administrators Academy. People who appear ‘normal’ before the training come out with psychological bull whips, snapping teachers in to compliance with threats and manipulations. Have you ever observed an administrator change his/her mind? If you do not speak out, only the choir will understand your agony. If you do resign, consider speaking out, only after your final evaluation is signed. An ‘occupy’ is a good idea. Unions have been bought out, but if enough of you join the opposition, you might triumph. Keep letters like yours in the faces of: the public, the parents, the press, professional journals, the legislators, President Obama, Michelle Obama, Jill Biden, not to mention the non-teacher- educated Arne Duncan. It’s hard uphill work, but you just might save the children.
I am not a teacher. I am a 40 year old single mom of a gifted child that has an IEP for PTSD. I was VERY lucky- I went to a GREAT school where I was able to learn, encouraged to suceed, rewarded for being an individual, and where my teachers loved their jobs. Because they loved what they did, I had the joy of loving to learn.
My son, who is 10, has skipped a year and a half of school. His schooling has been a nightmare. His teachers have not cared about him as an individual, nor in my opinion, have they cared about teaching. After moving across the country to find better schools, I have decided to homeschool due to not being able to find teachers that care about their students.
The final straw for public school is when we “dropped by” school during exam time- and found the teachers giving the answers to students to boost scores. That was his last day in public school.
I wish he would have had an opportunity like mine.
Thank you teachers that care, that try, that do not get paid hardly anything, that have a ridiculious workload and class size. I thank you for instilling in me the love of learning that I continue to share with my son.
I feel like you are describing everything I have felt for the last 3-5 years. I am in Illinois and decided that after 13 years of being a public school teacher, that I no longer feel that this position fits who I want to be. I am currently looking for work outside of education as well. I have heartbroken, discouraged, and generally disappointed in the lack of humanity that has come into our schools. I no longer feel like a human being preparing other humans to be ready for the world. I no longer feel like a teacher, but a robot who is given orders and carries them through. Thank you for everything that you said and for speaking out (like myself) when others were too afraid.
And the guy who pushed the destruction of public schools in Illinois, the “Chicago Way,” now is the Secretary of the Department of Education to do the same to schools nationwide. We see the result of that in K12 education nationwide, already — and now, those principles are being pushed for higher education, as well. The devastation spreads. . . .
OKAY, OKAY Perhaps what we should be doing is speaking out about all of this instead of whining and bitching on the internet and in the teachers lounge. Teachers it is way, WAY past the time to speak up. We all know the situation in public schools is dismal and giving up and walking away is not the answer, it may reduce your personal stress but in the long run giving up adds to the problem. There is power in numbers, teachers before us knew this and it’s the only reason we even have the pay or benefits we have now. Get off your duff and get active. Stop blaming parents and partner with them. There are more of us than there are of them ( the powers that be) but if we allow ourselves to be intimidated and silenced nothing will change. And in the meantime millions of otherwise bright kids full of potential will languish. RISE UP TEACHERS RISE UP!!!!!
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, formally known as teacher retirement.
Lots of discussion of tenure and unions…I just want to add that in AZ, teachers do NOT have tenure and our union is incredibly ineffective, our district’s chapter is well-known for hosting once-a-month margarita nights and little else–in the midst of a RIF two years ago, our representative went before the school board and said, ‘Yeah, um, we’d rather you didn’t lay off nearly 300 teachers. So, thanks for listening.”
I have no rights. If my principal doesn’t like me, I lose my job. In a few years, if my principal doesn’t like me, I lose a large percentage of my salary.
This year, my principal has declared war on kindergarten, and I am caught in the crossfire. He has made it clear that despite my very high scores (among the highest in the district every year), my insistence on doing “real teaching” and regularly going off-script makes me a rebellious threat to children. Recess is a waste of time. Letting children choose their own books to read is insane. Why am I wasting instructional time putting on Band-aids and tying shoes? Free Play is out. Why do you still have dolls and blocks in your room? Why aren’t your kids reading, yet?
It doesn’t help that his old friend, who doesn’t like me, is our “Reading Coach”, a despical human being that gossips and lies and causes as many problems as possible, when she’s not holed up in her office on ebay, anyway…I don’t stand a chance…
The lack of job security, as well as a pay freeze that has had me at the same salary for the past 6 years…well, add that to the constant “You are a horrible person” and the occasional angry parent “Why are you picking on my kid by making them behave?” phone call…The writing is on the wall and I am GONE.
I hope with all of my heart that I can find a job working somewhere that will treat me respectfully and professionally, with an instructional leader who has an understanding of the very special needs of early childhood students and educators, and believes in treating ALL people, big and small, with dignity and respect. I don’t want to give up teaching, but I can’t do this anymore, the stress and worry and frustration are KILLING me.
I’m afraid that if the teachers who truly see teaching as both a science AND an art abandon the profession, all that will be left are those satified with reading the script and treating children like little robots instead of human beings, and blindly doing what they are told instead of doing what is best for kids because they really don’t care…and then what?
I really have a heart for public education. I believe it has been, and should be, a great equalizer. Everybody gets a chance, everybody learns…My mother and my favorite aunt were teachers for upwards of 30 years each…But the kids in my family aren’t going anywhere near a public school, we’ve decided as a family to go the homeschool route.
Thank you for sharing your story. As I plan this weeks lesson plans I am disheartened that my bellwork is the benchmark test for the week. Projects that allow all students to showcase their talent and develop research skills (wow, a real life skill) are being dropped for drill and kill instruction. Not coincidentally, this is also the first year I am contemplating life outside of public education. The “we” of my classroom and school has become an “us” and “them” differentiated by test takers.
As a parent of a daughter who was diagnosed with osteosarcoma 2 years ago, I think the tests are overated. My daughter had a learning disability before cancer and because she missed alot of time from school, she lacked in all area of school. We spent countless day in the hospital administering chemo and other bad drugs into her little 7 year old body. To make a long story short we were made to feel as if the time missed from school as well as her learning disability was her fault. I was once told she did not pass the task test (now starr test) and that made our scores as a whole drop. Are you kidding me. We struggled and we still are to get her caught up. During chemo she had a homebound teacher for 2 – 4 hours but she would get ill in the middle of it and we would have to stop. This is so frustrating to me and my husband. There should be a special school for kids with major illnesses to attend after they are on the road to recovery because public school is not for those who are recovering while attending school. Can you imagine being told by a student “I am going to kick you in your broke leg” (the leg that is in the healing process). Frustration is what I am and still praying for God to deliver something that she will benefit from while in the process of learning 3rd-4th grade work, still struggling, while in the 5th grade modified class. School will handicap her with all the modifications that they allow. Its as if they are saying we dnt know what to do with you so here play with this while you attempt to learn. School is not the same anymore they are not teaching cursive writing and this new math is terrible. Well my list goes on and I do what I can do and I know God will bring us through. Thanks for allowing me to vent a little bit my list goes on and on.
I am sad, truly, that the really good, creative, invested teachers are being edged out of “the system,” to the detriment of the kids IN the system against their will.
I hope you find a path that appreciates you!
Peace.
I also agree that this is the end of public education. It is sad. Most of my colleagues and I are simply waiting for retirement. We have to get out to save ourselves. I didn’t get into teaching for all of these standardized tests, the results of which we cannot control. I am not optimistic. There are too many forces arrayed against us, and it is just the teachers fighting to save the system. Even parents are cheering these new reforms. Sadly, most Americans are not very intelligent, and they don’t understand anything about education. (sad but so true!) We allow billionaires to dictate what teaching is, etc. This could never happen in Germany or Finland where the “rich man” would be laughed out of the country. This is also a sure sign of decline. America is in decline, and this attack on the teachers by corporate elites is just going to make everything go down that much quicker. I would tell the young people thinking about teaching to forget it. This career is becoming mission impossible with unsupportive parents, uninterested students and impossible test scores to achieve. They simply want to “churn” the teachers and pay them nothing. Then wealthy people can keep more of their money instead of paying higher taxes. These are dark times, and I don’t see us going back. It took America 200 years to build up our public school system, and a few months and a stupid movie to destroy it. Isn’t that fitting.