A letter from a teacher:
At the classroom level, every day matters, as experienced teachers reach out and teach not only academic content, but also social skills, problem-solving skills, coping skills…the list is endless, the individual needs are varied, and yes, we differentiate all of the time. However, now we need to document everything, keep the data charts and strategies current and ongoing, always targeting, assessing, testing, testing, and yet more testing, and this is all added to our jobs of planning engaging lessons, reaching every student, revising instruction, classroom management…what is my point? I want to be able to just do my job please. I don’t need mandates after mandates crammed down my throat. I don’t want a “one curriculum fits all” that stifles creativity. I loathe the micromanagement tactics in our schools, where students are forced to travel in the halls in quiet lines, where structure is essential to optimize productivity…are these schools or prisons? It’s obvious that corporate agenda is behind the scenes, forcing mind and behavioral control to prepare obedient workers who will never question their role in society. The Nazi mantra “work makes you free,” is frightening and should raise an immediate, collective alarm across the land of the free and home of the brave. It’s time to raise our voices and REFUSE to be threatened, and cowed into obedience for fear of losing our jobs. As an educator, I cannot keep going into a classroom filled with young impressionable minds and crush their spirits and creativity with the uniformity of a rote curriculum and brain-washing mantras being dictated by government and corporate entities that preach their lofty intentions but are evil and rotten to the core. Their God is money, and the human experience is crushed to produce a work population to work hard and contribute generously to keep the money wheel spinning so the 1% will never have to be held accountable for the harm they do. Did Bill Gates really make a joke about how he controls education? If this arrogance is not enough to ARM educators, then I’m afraid it is too far gone to fix. I do agree that every parent, every teacher, every administrator refuse to be part of this testing and evaluation regime. On a personal note, I feel like a total failure because as an educator, I am lost. I can no longer teach pablum and lies to my students, and it breaks my heart to slowly watch them steadily switching off their minds in the classroom. If you think they aren’t aware, think again. The stress is overwhelming, and it isn’t healthy to punish those who truly want to “teach.” I do have a choice: I can leave the profession I’ve been doing for 16 years. I just might end up doing this because if I don’t, it might kill me. Yes…it is that stressful. Thanks for reading.
It’s the same design philosophy he employs for his software …
I think he’s probably set in his ways …
His god, Mammon, has burdened him to be “set in his ways” due to a mishap in his prior existence as a red crowned marmoset.
LOL!
Reblogged this on PUMABydesign001's Blog.
Sad, haunting and tragic.
Beautifully stated. My extended views were placed in Dr. Ravitch’s blog today under
“Whitney Tilson and I find common ground”. We concur in addition to MANY others.
Exactly right. Pitifully so.
If you leave teaching, Bill Gates wins.
You were wrong about Zune, Windows ME, Windows Vista, Windows Surface tablets, Windows 8 (start button?), Kin, Bob, Windows Pen, Web TV, Pocket PC and a host of other products.
But those are just products. Billy boy you are wrong about other things too. Remember back when Windows 95 first came out and you would drop anyone who exceeded the three-minute wait time when they called for support on YOUR buggy software? I do. Do you remember Billy boy how you were taken to court on antitrust practices by the U.S. Gov. and lost? I do. Do you remember Billy boy when you tried to you rushed Vista out before it was ready or tested properly and it tanked spectacularly? I do. Do you remember when Lotus 123 and Word were rivals and how you undercut their already pretty cheap price until Word dominated the market? Remember how after Lotus 123 went under Word and MS Office quadrupled in price? I do.
You see Billy boy, I remember many, if not all of your failures. There seem to be more failures than successes – that kind of stands out a bit.
Here is what else I remember, or more accurately observed. I remember that as far as products are concerned even your successes are veiled failures. Putting out crappy buggy software is not a business plan yet for you it is.
It works like this: Microsoft puts out buggy, bloated, shoddy software that other companies fix and problem solve and go through all the trouble of field testing, marketing, and a singular eye on the user experience. These companies that “fix” your software are then bought up and often times dismantled. Even if Microsoft decides to keep the software and actually use it they often times screw it up so bad that it dies a slow death or implodes.
You see Billy boy putting out crap and buying out anyone who wants to improve upon and innovate your crap is NOT a sustainable business model. It smells to much like the reason the U.S. Gov. took you to court. Your company does not innovate at all they just buy out anyone who does.
Since I am being critical of you Billy boy let’s not stop at Microsoft. You were also wrong about small schools as per your own admission. You are also wrong about VAM. Forbes, Slate.com, Vanity Fair and a host of others have documented how your abusive, stacked ranking, top-down management style may actually be what pulls you under. Many point out how firing the bottom 10% leads to employees competing in ways that are ultimately unhealthy for the company. Like not really working collaboratively and even instances of sabotage.
The point to all this is that sometimes you are wrong Billy boy. All the money and power in the world will not change that. When it comes to education you are wrong on not just a few points, but EVERY single point.
Do us all a favor and get the #$%*& out of education and stick to computer stuff. At least you were right about 25% of the time on those kind of decisions.
BOOM!
Outstanding!
Nicely said!
This wins “Top Comment” !
Bob’s response to Billy boy needs to go viral.
If this is what elementary teaching is going to be like I suggest thast we reconstruct how we teach. I have never seen so much paper work falling on the shoulders of elementary teachers, I just spent 1 hour filling in a chart with information about every student I teach. This has nothing to do with teaching and it was in the past the work of clerks.
Bob the science guy, very eloquently stated. My concern is that Billy boy’s end game is to create failure and rake in the buck$ while destroying public education. Seems failure has made him all the wealthier.
Billy the Goates’ god, Mammon, cares nothing about whether ol Billy is a failure, he only demands money.
Amen
So well put. I am a teacher & graduate student, seeking teacher anecdotes for a study on the impact high-stakes testing has on classroom communities. If you are reading this and are a NYC elementary school teacher, please take minute to fill out this short survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NPMQB5M Thank you!
Thank you to this teacher for writing exactly how I feel. But please don’t quit. Please keep speaking up to help us and my own children stuck in this nonsense.
Bob thank you too! Keep up the direct questions to Billy! Ask him why is he investing in waterless toilets in China now?
Everyone , please switch to the Green Party asap!!
Go Green Party!
Bill Gate’s SMART Objective: By the end of 10 years, students will be able to… What a bizarre perspective. It’s must be the Bizzaro World of Education http://wp.me/p3Lk1s-6i
Reblogged this on Teachers' Letters to Bill Gates and commented:
Dear Bill and Melinda,
Teachers across America are sharing the edu-malaise your reforms are causing. Even beyond malaise, many students, teachers, schools and communities are experiencing a violent allergic response to your reforms, much like severe anaphylactic shock. Some of us will recover after reprogramming, while others will not. The weight of this effect belongs mainly to you and Melinda. Ten more years of your reforms is simply not acceptable. Read why, here from on teacher as shared by Diane Ravitch.
Susan and Katie, Teachers’ Letters to Bill Gates
Diane,
This is off topic, but I wanted you and your readers to know about a wonderful play currently showing at the NYC Fringe Festival called “Why You Beasting” by David Don Miller. The play, written by a former Bronx teacher, is a comedy about the current state of affairs in NYC public schools. I recommend anyone interested in education policy to go see this hilarious and heartwarming show.
Not only are we preparing generations of docile worker drones…we are preparing them for factories which no longer exist. How on Earth does this serve anyone – 1% or otherwise?
Bill Gates is a sniveling, evil, mad scientist . . . . .
He is an outright pervert to children and should have nothing to do with their education . . .
Please, although perhaps now mad (I’m not professionally qualified to judge), Bill Gates is not, and never was, a “scientist”.
It’s a metaphor.
Ah! But an inaccurate metaphor that conflates the practice and teaching of inductive logic with evil and smears that pursuit with the charge of having no concern for ethics, no?
We should choose our metaphors carefully.
Point well taken. Agreed!
Can we settle for Bill gates is a @#^&*(@@($$#^&@^ . . . . . . . ?
Yep!
Bob, the Science Guy!
Wonderful ! ! ! !
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if
you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates.
I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this.
Please let me know if you run into anything.
I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new
updates.