Mr. and Mrs Gates, Please Read This
I received the following comment from a third-grade teacher. She is trying her best but federal and state officials keep interfering with her ability to teach. You will note that she writes acronym after acronym of big programs, big ideas that officials keep dumping on her.
As I read her comment, my heart went out to her. She became a teacher because she wants to teach. The bureaucrats and the experts have decided that data matters most, and she is drowning in data, data assessment, pre- and post-test analysis, name it.
What does all this verbiage and all these programs have to do with teaching and learning?
Have we lost our collective minds?
Is there no help for a teacher who just wants to teach and nurture the children in her care?
As I read her comment, my heart went out to her. She became a teacher because she wants to teach. The bureaucrats and the experts have decided that data matters most, and she is drowning in data, data assessment, pre- and post-test analysis, name it.
What does all this verbiage and all these programs have to do with teaching and learning?
Have we lost our collective minds?
Is there no help for a teacher who just wants to teach and nurture the children in her care?
| I teach 3rd. grade at a “Turn Around School” in Escondido, CA. For the last two years I have felt the “heat” of |