Career Suicide

Many people have expressed that writing a book about how I truly feel will be the end of my teaching career. Okay, but I wasn't actually teaching in the first place. Well, not with the onset of the MCAS and the Core Curriculum. All I was doing was test prep. All I was doing was appeasing the desires of coddling parents and equally coddling administrators. No matter what my next endeavor might be, public schools will continue to be test preparation institutions as opposed to places for the development of education and knowledge. It's quite sad and unfortunate that our society is no longer interested in learning for the sake of learning. No longer do we teach for the simple act of giving information or creating knowledge. If it can't be tested, there is no need to teach it. Have you seen the handwriting of children in 2013? It's illegible. Why? Because taking the time to teach a child how to write neatly and legibly is not something that will be on any test and it takes away from the time dedicated to what IS on the test.

How is this acceptable? If the test taker can't read the handwritten answer, how will the child pass the test? I begged my mother to teach me how to write in cursive from an early age and she refused to teach me because I would be learning it in second grade. I wanted to write in cursive so badly, but I had to wait. When the day finally came to learn how to write in cursive, we wrote, and wrote, and wrote until it was perfect. I went to St. Agnes in Arlington, MA. I hated it, of course, but in hindsight, I learned so much there that I far surpassed the students in my public school when I left St. Agnes. I don't care any longer how I feel about any given religion; if the school is going to TEACH then it is a better institution than the public schools. I'm not ashamed to say that. Unless, of course, the parent is active in their child's learning and development giving that child an advantage over their classmates where they may or may not benefit in the classroom. Unless your child has an IEP, they will fall through the cracks if the parents aren't vigilant. Don't believe me? Pull a teacher aside and ask their opinion promising anonymity.

We have also done a disservice to the children that are hands on learners. Why can't we teach math and science through cooking? Oh, that's right, cooking classes don't exist any longer unless the district has the money to pay the cooking teacher. What about wood shop? Auto shop? Those are valuable learning environments for the learner who is no less intelligent than everyone else, just able to learn a different way. Does that make a kid need an IEP? No, it makes that kid an individual. Put the kid who can't sit still in wood shop or auto shop and watch as he/she builds you a solid house or fixes your car better than the dealer. They are no less important or smart. They are the ones who get the other learners where they need to go and with a roof over their heads. But you can't test it so it must not be important, right? Oh...they need to go to a technical school for that? They have to wait until high school to learn with their hands? That makes a whole lot of sense, given that they may have failed tests repeatedly or ended up being punished for not paying attention through the first 10 years of their education and they're supposed to have any confidence? Okay, now I understand. We only coddle the kids who can't concentrate but can do the work with help and don't cause any trouble at all. If another student's ego is bruised so severely they give up, well, they must not be on the right medication and they'll never pass the MCAS and take the GED after they drop out anyway. Sorry!

If this honesty is career suicide, so be it. I refuse to remain silent when we are no longer educating our kids, only training them for a test. Children are being left behind, thank you very much Laura Bush. If I never get another teaching job, guess what? I don't want to work for you anyway. This country is based on freedom and I am going to use my freedom of speech to give myself the pursuit of happiness, which I was not finding as I played by the "rules" of public teaching. I was too strict with standards too high. Sue me.