An essay on what our children need
“When will the conversation shift away from non-issues like choice, competition, bad teachers, and test scores, to finally focus on the kinds of reform that would actually make a difference in these kids’ lives?”
I am re-posting an excerpt of an essay written by Katie Osgood who is a special education teacher working in a psychiatric hospital in Chicago. The original post is on Anthony Cody’s blog, Living in Dialogue, and titled The Reform My Students Need:
I have a pretty unique job. I work as a teacher on a child/adolescent inpatient unit at a psychiatric hospital in Chicago. My students come from all over Chicagoland and attend all types of schools: neighborhood, charter, turnaround, private, suburban, alternative, and sometimes no school at all. The vast majority of my students, however, come from low-income minority neighborhoods. My job allows me a rare birds-eye view of the