This teacher decided to leave a job she loves. She is trying to figure out what is happening, why so much teacher-bashing, why so little support. Luckily she has her “bucket fillers,” the colleagues and friends she can trust.
What is sad about this strangely moving essay is that she does not realize that her situation is political, not personal. She lives in Michigan, where teachers and public education are under assault by the state’s elected officials.
No introspection, no reading club, no graduate course can cure the problem she senses. What is needed is political action, first to realize what is happening, to recognize that the fault is not of her making, then to join with her friends and colleagues to get involved on actions that will solve the problem instead of accepting or internalizing it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Introspection is enormously important and is not opposed to action. Political action should serve a higher good–among other things, the good of a thoughtful, respected profession.
Moreover, I don’t even see her avoiding or ignoring action.
“Serendipitously, I’m taking a class this semester that is all about how to give teachers a voice in this time of educational ‘reform’ and teacher bashing. The project I have chosen is on teacher retention. Because I want to know, despite all that we’ve been told we’re doing wrong, who’s choosing to stay and who’s choosing to fight for teachers?”
In other words, the “graduate course” seems to be precisely about addressing the problems head-on.
As for the reading club, my understanding is that she sees it not as a “cure” but as an affirmation of something beautiful.
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If this is the cause of all the angst, and the political “grab” of public educaton, maybe we should discuss it here:
Could this actually be valid? Is there some level of psychological testing embedded in the Common Core – made freely available by changes to FERPA?
CCSS tests “attributes, dispositions, social skills, attitude’s and intra-personal resources” and reports it all to the government???
Could this be true?
http://commoncorefacts.blogspot.com/2013/03/common-core-mental-health-professional.html#.UUi4CpYIdyA.facebook
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The comments about veteran teachers feeling the new reform pressures rang true to what I am seeing. New teachers don’t have the history of pre-corp reform for comparison. Current reality is all they know. Veteran teachers can see the damage that has been, and is, being done. And our careers in which we invested so much time and energy, now appear to dishonored by so many. The sadness is palpable.
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Nice, but I think we’ve got to learn to be a little stronger. We just can’t give up like this. What happened to Goleman’s EQ and all that stuff? Let’s not forget that notwithstanding these crazy policies, we still have our little space with our kids in the classroom, and no matter how much we have to teach to the test, we can still reach out to our kids and make an impact on them. That’s the challenge: how do we create sanity in an insane situation. That’s where our creativity and innovativeness come in. Running away is the easiest thning to do.
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