Teachers' Letters to Bill Gates | Educators from the US and beyond: please share your teaching stories with Mr. Bill Gates.

Teachers' Letters to Bill Gates | Educators from the US and beyond: please share your teaching stories with Mr. Bill Gates. How have the policies of the Gates Foundation influenced your classroom, your students, your teaching, your schools, and your communities?:

NYC teacher: “THIS is what the Common Core is doing to our children; it’s heartbreaking and wrong”

Posted on March 19, 2014by Teachers'LettersToBillGates

Bill,

You yourself said the authoritative voice is that of the teachers. Read what this Brooklyn, NY teacher – whom I hold in high regard – has to say about your Common Core package. – Katie Lapham

“Today after school the 3rd grade sister of a student of mine joined the debate team for our practice, as she sometimes does. Afterwards I asked her how 3rd grade was going, and she replied “terribly!” I asked why and she told me that the (New York) state ELA test was coming up in a few weeks and she was afraid she would fail. Her eyes teared up when I asked her why she thought she would fail. “Because I’m an idiot!,” she replied. She was careful to stress that it wasn’t her teacher’s fault, but her very own that she didn’t feel ready. It was heartbreaking. This sweet girl was taking on the entire weight of the testing regime and trying to protect her teacher by blaming herself for what she views as inevitable failure. THIS is what the Common Core is doing to our children. It’s heartbreaking and it’s wrong.”

- Devon Whitham, teacher

Posted in Bill Gates, Common Core, Common Core High Stakes Testing, Corporate Education Reform, End High Stakes Testing, High Stakes Testing, Standardized Testing, Testing, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

This Teacher Can No Longer Tolerate Bill Gates’ Ignorance and Apathy

Posted on March 19, 2014by Teachers'LettersToBillGates

Dear Bill Gates,

This is now the third letter I am publishing on teachersletterstobillgates.com, a website that, by now, you surely must be well aware exists. There have been over 150 heartfelt and emotional posts published in the nine or so months since its inception, yet you have chosen, thus far, to ignore them all.

And that is the reason for my third letter to you today. I don’t know how I can tolerate your ignorance – your apathy – for much longer. Especially when I read “news” that quotes you as saying, “Maybe we can’t answer every tweet or post, but the authoritative voice on this is teachers.” Do you REALLY believe this, Bill? I doubt it.

Because if you had, you certainly would have at least taken a moment to address its existence.  But you can’t. Why? Because you’re too busy touting your claims of all-knowing excellence to the world and selling your products to fix the public education system in America.

I try to see the good in others; I TRY to believe that you really do think you are doing what