To: President Donald Trump
Let teachers TEACH!
Give public school teachers the ability to teach once again, Stop the business train that is wreaking havoc on our public schools
Why is this important?
The new national curriculum is a burden that is wreaking havoc in American public school classrooms. Teachers are being bullied everyday by administrators, legislators and business executives who have no experience in the field of education. Companies like Bain and Walmart are influencing the passing of dangerous laws that restrict the rights and freedom of teachers , and people like Bill Gates are influencing educational policy. Academics have been pushed to the side in favor of technology and testing.
In addition, the national curriculum, the child of Bush's No Child Left Behind is further eroding real teaching. Data is now driving instruction and technology use in the classroom is being forced upon students and teachers, although even the American Pediatric Association recognizes the dangers of excessive screen use and recommends no more than two hours of screen time per day. Education is NOT a BUSINESS and should not be run like one. Children and teachers are individuals and this one size, robo-teacher concept is nothing short of frightening. Actual teacher centered classrooms are no longer allowed, and teachers, experienced ones in particular, are being threatened and bullied in classrooms across the country everyday.
That teachers have been maligned and demonized in the last several years is sad, but what we are doing to our children is even more so. Public school children, especially minority and poor ones, are being left further and further behind everyday. Please, repeal the national curriculum and kick businesses out of the educational policy debate. Give teachers back their ability to teach. Our futures and those of our children depend upon this. And, please, talk to teachers before making wide sweeping changes in education. I would not know how to do your job, could you do mine?
Tomorrow I will go to school and teach King Lear, The Grapes of Wrath and The Great Gatsby to my junior and senior classes. And as I do, I will be thinking in the back of my mind that I could be caught doing so by an administrator. But the fear of what we are doing to our children is stronger even than the fear of reprisal. So I will continue to teach, everyday, until I am allowed to do so openly once again, or until I am let go which becomes a greater and greater possibility with each new law passed.
In addition, the national curriculum, the child of Bush's No Child Left Behind is further eroding real teaching. Data is now driving instruction and technology use in the classroom is being forced upon students and teachers, although even the American Pediatric Association recognizes the dangers of excessive screen use and recommends no more than two hours of screen time per day. Education is NOT a BUSINESS and should not be run like one. Children and teachers are individuals and this one size, robo-teacher concept is nothing short of frightening. Actual teacher centered classrooms are no longer allowed, and teachers, experienced ones in particular, are being threatened and bullied in classrooms across the country everyday.
That teachers have been maligned and demonized in the last several years is sad, but what we are doing to our children is even more so. Public school children, especially minority and poor ones, are being left further and further behind everyday. Please, repeal the national curriculum and kick businesses out of the educational policy debate. Give teachers back their ability to teach. Our futures and those of our children depend upon this. And, please, talk to teachers before making wide sweeping changes in education. I would not know how to do your job, could you do mine?
Tomorrow I will go to school and teach King Lear, The Grapes of Wrath and The Great Gatsby to my junior and senior classes. And as I do, I will be thinking in the back of my mind that I could be caught doing so by an administrator. But the fear of what we are doing to our children is stronger even than the fear of reprisal. So I will continue to teach, everyday, until I am allowed to do so openly once again, or until I am let go which becomes a greater and greater possibility with each new law passed.