This teacher realized that she could not be free to think for herself until she stopped internalizing and accepting the reproaches of the corporate reformers. She was free when she realized that her training and experience as an educator mattered. She was free when she realized that when she did not attain perfection every day, it was not her fault.
She wrote:
“Can’t speak for everyone, but the way it worked for me was this way… initially, there was this vague sense of confusion when the NCLB legislation went through. “How can we defy the Bell Curve?” I asked myself. I chuckled thinking, “Ha, just wait ’til ‘they’ figure out that it can’t be done!” I was teaching special education at the time.
“Over the next couple of years… as the pressure mounted, I moved to a state that I felt would better suit me for the rest of my career. The first slap in the face was that I couldn’t get a job in a public school… my degree and years of experience made me “too expensive.” A charter school was willing to hire me though… they liked having someone w/ a sp.ed. background. Especially since the school is working in an area with kids from low SES backgrounds… they wanted and were willing to pay someone with my education and experience. At the time, I didn’t know or understand the difference between a charter school and public school. All I knew was that I had a job!
“Fast forward… more and more “accountability” was heaped on… and the rhetoric that the teachers heard placed more and more “accountability” onto them. If the scores aren’t high enough, then we’re not working hard enough. THAT was the proverbial Kool-Aid… because most teachers are overly responsible, they bought into the idea that “if we only work harder…”. Then they (whoever “they” are) tried to close our school by revoking the charter due to low test scores. Unlike many charter schools, we take ALL of the kids! Many of our children are challenging. Many of our children struggle with learning. The school’s charter has been picked up, so it will not close this year. In the meantime, I’ve educated myself on the difference between charter, public, and private schools. I discovered that this “angst” that had been growing over the years in me was being experienced by other teachers all over the country. And what has happened… is that teachers are REALIZING that it’s NOT their fault! Hence, all the grassroots organizations that Diane is trying to link through NPE.
“Teachers have “allowed” it, because most of us “drank the Kool-Aid” of believing that it really was our fault… and now many of us are saying, “NO! It’s NOT our fault!” Like the character “Boxer” from Animal Farm… we kept working harder, working harder… but instead of us all collapsing and being sent to the “glue factory,” we’re getting off the farm. I’m leaving my school. I “know” too much now about the school reform movement… and I can’t support it. I don’t know where I will go. But I do know, that as soon as I figured out that it was NOT all my fault is when I started saying, “There’s something wrong with the system, and it needs to be changed.” THIS is probably what your seeing with many teachers. They believe that they only need to work harder… work harder… work harder… . But when they realize it’s not them, it’s the system… that’s when the change starts to happen. I “allowed” these policies, because I’m “hyper-responsible”… I’m the kind of teacher that kids need in school… I do what needs to be done…. but, the downside is… I was taking responsibility for things that were not my fault… and I didn’t realize it until I heard Diane Ravitch speak about it on the youtube upload “Diane Ravitch defends teachers” here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAivikFLJvU
“I’m grateful to Diane for this. In some ethereal way, she saved my life by helping me voice my experience and realize that the current state of education is NOT MY FAULT. I will NOT kill myself through the stress of working in an untenable situation.
“I’ve said it before, and I say it again, “THANK YOU DIANE!”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I totally agree. Teachers have been victimized by lies!
No they haven’t. They’ve been willing participants in their own demise. They chose to go along to get along and harmed many a child in the mean time. Sorry, don’t buy this ol “woe is me” syndrome. Cue Linda Ronstadt about now, eh Joanna B.
Um, Duane, that’s ridiculous . . . those who did take a stand against these methods were punished. The number of teachers in rubber rooms doubled shortly after Joel Klein, a great believer
in principal autonomy, became chancellor.
The numbers suggest that Klein was applying pressure around the edges of tenure and that some teachers were placed in Reassignment Centers for dubious reasons.
But not only the numbers — Samuel G. Freedman’s reporting in the Times gave countless “examples of quality teachers persecuted by insecure or dictatorial administrators for being active in
the union, speaking to the press or merely having independent views on curriculum.” (Samuel G. Freedman, “On Education: Where Teachers Sit, Awaiting Their Fates,” New York Times, 10 October 2007.)
A lot of people did not choose to go along and examples were made of them. Woe unto them was shoveled. So how much blame are you going to heap on someone who, seeing those examples, chose not to emulate the guy who ended up being railroaded, maybe losing his job and ending up suffering substantial setbacks in life?
However, what I would say surprised me the most over the last dozen years was the way unions rolled over and refused to take a stand. Indeed, they often collaborated, as with the UFT endorsing
George Pataki over Carl McCall in the 2002 Governor’s election in New York, or not fighting mayoral control of the schools because they got a better contract in the short-term. Randi Weingarten was unfairly demonized in Waiting for Superman for protecting teachers through support of due process hearings. But her great fault was
treating the dismantlers of public education as legitimate, going along with pay-for-performance, not fighting for our children to have a creative and engaging form of education. What she was thinking, I don’t know, but it tells me we should never let a lawyer head a teachers union ever again.
Duane: I’m not a teacher. I’m a parent and small business owner. But I believe passionately in the value of free, universal public education and in treating the people who educate our children with respect and kindness.
I’ve seen a lot of your other snarky, belligerent, vicious postings here. You like to pick on teachers, Duane? Is that right? Does that make you feel like a Big Man?
I’d be happy to go one-on-one with you anytime. You want to beat up some teachers or ridicule them and their profession? Then you’ll have to come through me first.
And I’m ready to meet with you any time or place you’d like: “Big Man”.
Understand?
“Who’s saying “woe is me?”
Duane, Do you recognize these words? “…we see how people get trapped in a world that is not of their making, a world that offends their sense of decency. Most people accept that world as it is. A few don’t. The question is always whether the dissidents figure out a way to get others to see the world as they do or whether they die fighting an unjust system. UNFORTUNATELY MANY HIGHLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS HAVE BEEN FORCED OUT FOR FIGHTING AGAINST THE UNJUST SYSTEM.” and “To question grades, standards and standardized testing is to question the status quo (not the rock group), the dominant ideology. And those challenging the ideology are seen as insane, blasphemous, as causing chaos and anarchy and therefore must be silenced, shunned or better yet crushed.”
Old worker but new teacher here. I cannot believe the amount of teacher bashing lately. It even filters into the classroom. Sad. Ok. I can understand lawyer jokes, and can ignore teacher slights. But unlike any other profession I’ve experienced, the difference is the anti-teacher attitudes are the basis for public policy. Kids behind in reading? Must be those lazy teachers. Economy in the tank? Perhaps we just don’t have good ’nuff educators. National security at risk? Blame the schools (no kidding – thus actually came from one of those think tanks). The solution seems to be a counter-logical policy of education austerity. The twisted logic goes if we fire all the teachers on a whim, reduce pay and benefits to Walmsrt levels, and curtail real learning for test prep, we will somehow create a world class system.
YEP, WORLD CLASS!
“I’m hyper-responsible” I find that that quality to be true of most teachers, and that they are rule followers. I would also describe them as achievers through diligent hard work.
Would you rather be stranded on a deserted island with teachers, bankers, or car salesman? Teachers are a pretty good bunch.
Teachers, because we can make do with less!
Bill Gates, who’s behind much of this horrid Ed. Reform, treated as an infallible expert on public education- well his ENTIRE new OS , Windows 8 has been a complete failure, as well as,Microsoft’s treatment of its customers.
How is it that Gates can fail this large (one of several) yet be held in such high esteem in everything education?
From a business newsletter:
“In response to widespread consumer dissatisfaction about Windows 8, Microsoft (MSFT) says substantial changes are in store later this year when the operating system is next updated. Independent tech analyst Mark Anderson opined, “It’s a horrible thing for this to happen to your flagship product.” And Envisioneering analyst Richard Doherty drew a less-than-flattering comparison, “This is like New Coke, going on for seven months — only Coke listened better.”
Remember the Golden Rule — he who has the gold makes the rules!
Microsoft EdReform v. 1.0 – major fail!
Just swipe those public school teachers away!
Thanks for the astute reference to teachers as “Boxer” in Animal Farm. Yea, we’re so responsible that we just keep working harder and harder until they send us to the glue factory! I’ve been up since 4 am preparing for the day, so it brought a much needed laugh at the truth of it all.
Maybe Mollie wasn’t so dumb?
We need to tell our teachers how much we value them. They should know what they do is so much more than a test score. This is the main reason I am against standardized testing, I don’t want my child to be a part of something that is used to punish teachers.
Iheartdurham: said and done.
To all you teachers out there who are the everyday heroes of America—
Krazy Props!
🙂
Heroes, don’t need no stinkin heroes!
Have to disagree with ya here KTA.
I’ll accept any and all good wishes/love/props sent our way.
Thank you
While I agree with you, it seems that the “value” society tells teachers always has a caveat:
“We value teachers, IF they can bring up test scores.”
We value teachers, BUT they must live in poverty.”
“We value teachers, at least, the ones that work 15 hours a day.”
“We value teachers, if they are the ‘best and brightest’ and come from Ivy League schools with 5 weeks of training.”
“We value teachers, as long as they don’t complain.”
Etc. I’m not saying you are doing that, Iheartduram.
The other day, as message was being passed around Facebook wishing everyone a Happy Teacher Appreciation week. Innocuous enough, until I saw that is was sponsored by TFA. I don’t want them appreciating me!
Good point Louisiana Purchase! It’s like the politician’s apology: “I’m sorry if I offended anyone.” Which of course is not really an apology, much less an amend.
Ha, ha. Great thoughts. Thanks!
the message is for parents to opt of the tests,
run by accountability mavens so that they might have more control
and dictate the use of products that dull the brightest mind . . .
I am an old retired teacher (35 years, public high school, math and science). I retired just as this craziness was beginning to reach my job. When they could not explain the statistics that were going to be used to assess my “value-added” score I knew I was doing the right thing by retiring.
For all my years as a teacher I felt that the vast majority of students, parents and administrators trusted me. They knew I would do my best to educate my kids and be a good role model for them. The kids trusted that I would not BS them or purposely be unfair. I had a great job. I can’t imagine having another career.
How will they find people to do this important job? It ain’t the money, but the personal satisfaction and the positive relationships that schools can foster. If misused numbers become the focus of schools, we are lost.
I concur. I wound up retiring for the same reasons. I worked my fingers to the bone, stayed stressed out constantly, and became less than well. Nothing about this fiasco was my fault. My kids’ scores were great. Our school’s scores were great. However, it didn’t matter because we had to keep on “improving”. Done.
That is how it was set up to work from the beginning.
The GW Bush admin was working to bring to fruition the ideas
of the Reagan and GHW ‘Education President’ Bush administrations.
It was the plan all along.
In America 2000, produced under the auspices of the Bush Dept. of Education in 1991, the word ‘public’ is used seven times in 35 pages; as Joseph Kahne (1997: 92) has observed, those seven references all came within discussions of school choice proposals that called into question the existence of public schools.
Recommendations were for a significant institutional transformation of the system. Included was, of course, a battle over language. America 2000 argued that the definition of public schools should be broadened to “include all schools that serve the public and are accountable to public authority, regardless of who runs them.”
This has been a long term plan.
Republicans have wanted to dismantle public education and the teaching profession in order to (a) make teaching a lower paying profession (Republicans talk about efficiency, but they mean lower wages and longer hours) (b) open opportunities for well-heeled corporations (Republicans talk about entrepreneurs, but they mean huge conglomerates that can overwhelm and/or buy out the innovative entrepreneur) and (c) remove one of the pillars of the Democratic party.
And the whole thing is anti-union to boot. Remember Bob Dole’s acceptance speech at the 1996 Republican Convention:
I say this not to the teachers, but to their unions: If education
were a war, you would be losing it. If it were a business, you
would be driving it into bankruptcy. If it were a patient, it
would be dying. To the teachers unions I say, when I
am president, I will disregard your political power, for
the sake of the children, the schools, and the nation.
I plan to enrich your vocabulary with those words you fear —
school choice, competition, and opportunity scholarships —
so that you will join the rest of us in accountability, while
others compete with you for the commendable privilege of
giving our children a real education.
This was one of a series of efforts to place the blame for public education’s failures squarely on the shoulders of Teachers Unions. And while the GWBush administration generally played this smart by pretending to want to improve education when that was not their goal at all, sometimes they forgot, such as what might have been the most eye-catching of all — when then Sec. or Education Rod Paige referred to the NEA as a ‘terrorist organization.’
So, please, don’t be surprised — the Republicans have been saying they would do this for at least 30 years.
The shame is that now our supposedly Democratic President is just as arrogantly ignoring the value of public education and a teaching profession that is a check on corporate plundering.
Perhaps our mantra should be. “We refuse to take responsibility for things that are not our fault.” We need to say it louder and louder and louder until we believe it and everyone can here it. I will own this phrase and will use it when pressed. I too am hyper-responsible and the powers that be know that if I am supposed to do something then I will and will do it the very best that I can. I will take responsibility for my actions and my duties, but I refuse to take responsibility for things that are not my fault. Boy do I feel empowered! Thanks for the great post.
Our mantra should be what Tufts Education professor Steve Cohen said:
“My guess is that testing improves education the same way that
bombing promotes democracy.”
thank you for this posting; we are led to believe that we are “burned out” or something if you try to disagree. I was on a research/evaluation panel and we were invited to speak in the neighboring state. The administration supported one view and I was taking the opposite side (not as if there are 2 side but that is the way the agenda was set up). I’m glad that I did it but the encouragement was not there from anyone in the front office; they buy into an ideology or a “fad” and do not permit the persons to speak out who might not agree. I call my group of colleagues “motley crew of deadly dinosaurs”. It is good to know that on line there is a community of persons who are willing to look at the information, the data, and speak out when one disagrees with the latest “fad”…. we are going through another “technology bubble” that is driven by large funding sources who promote this use of the computer ; it’s been going on since the 70s but it is extreme at this point . Like the math wars and the reading wars, we have the “computer” wars. Remember the adage “give the boy a hammer” and everything has to be hammered? That is where the mind set is. I have this unused space in my huge/giant computer? How can I make a profit center here? For speaking out you will be isolated, told you are “inferior”, that you are not “modern” (i.e., grabbing every technology addiction that is selling), and worse because the values underlying the “sales” marketing approach differ from the values we learned when we were in teacher training from our community, family, etc. When you feel alone and isolated it is hard to put things in perspective. The computer firms are selling into a “market” of school admiistrators that (a) want to be “first” on the street with the newest toy; and (b) want to work up the career ladder (like lobbyists who were once staff aides in congress) (c) have a personal agenda to “make a name for themselves” by changing the rules of the game (this has been done with ever “newer” forms of elitist testing…. I own the computer so I own the curricuum and I own the tests. Teachers need to be vigilant in speaking up when the interests of the children are at stake. Read outside your field whenever possible (e.g., history)… I have on my desk today “Plutocrats” and “Why I left Goldman Sachs” as there are other professionals who are questioning this technology bubble. Purposely, I had kept my mind in reserve about Bill Gates over the years but Plutocrats explains what the medical field has experienced; having read many of the posts on this blog and the “Plutocrats” I have discerned what I think is happening in regards to Bill Gates. Teachers have experience with the “math wars” and the “reading wars” . I was never a Luddite as I claim on this blog that my first desk top computer was a CRT screen and a teletype keyboard and I embraced them eagerly for the approach to my work but early on I realized when someone was selling “wires and pliers” and “snake oil” even though I was not appreciated because I went against the latest fads.
The key here is that this teacher became informed. Most teachers are not informed, and neither do they care to be informed. Granted most teachers are too busy with their career and their families – face it we are busy people and school reform is complicated.
Most teachers, as myself, have too many bills and are too old to be out looking for a career. It doesn’t pay to be a teacher until the very end, and even then nobody is getting rich doing this.
Most of us are in too deep. I applaud those who get out in order to make a statement, but not all of us are capable of doing so, unfortunately.
Churn is what “they” want anyways.
Right, and I believe that part of our union’s responsibility is to inform its membership about what’s happening to public schools. Yes, I do my part, but my “me” needs to be changed to our “we”.
As the Brits say, the part about blaming ourselves is ‘Spot on’
I, too, got out of teaching just as NCLB was grabbing hold (not to retire but to start a family and was blessed enough not to “have” to work). Some of the last things I remember about teaching were the introduction of “higher expectations” as in “all 7th graders will be in algebra” (never mind that they weren’t ready, mathematically or cognitively)…..”it is your fault if they don’t do well” (never mind that they weren’t ready, mathematically or cognitively)….looking at a 1st grade test prep booklet and seeing ‘pick the picture that shows a child getting ONBOARD a boat” (all pictures had a boat in them)…listening to a friend of mine told to stick to the script (dumbing down of a teachers work) and don’t deviate even for those pesky, random “teachable moments”. It only got worse.
And I remember a PD session where we were all asked to explain how we could improve our teaching practices by making them more data-driven
My answer was that i based my teaching on many types of data — what students told me about their homes, their lives, what I saw in their eyes and on the pages they wrote, what they seemed to feel at the end of the day, the frustrations and aspirations they told the class, what I had learned, on a trial error basis, worked to motivate them . . .
That’s not the answer they wanted. They meant ‘test-data-driven’
Beautifully said, Brian!
I feel the same way, I’m the same kind of teacher. Thank you, Diane!