Teachers who #defendchildren: AFT & NEA Call to Action
The harm being inflicted on children for the sake of corporate profit is a national crisis. It is a crisis that is ignored in the national media but understood by educators, parents and students as a problem that calls for revolution.
NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia states, “The revolution I want is ‘proceed until apprehended.’” Translation: Teachers, administrators and everybody else involved should ignore bad school reform policy and do “the right thing” for kids. Whether they [reformers] have sinister motives or misguided honest motives, we should say, ‘We are not going to listen to you anymore. We are going to do what’s right.”
The national unions have stated their intent to support teachers who refuse to administer high stakes tests.
United Opt Out joins hands with teachers across the country who stand up and refuse to administer high stakes tests that harm children cognitively, emotionally and physically. Peer reviewed research on high stakes testing clearly shows that such testing causes illness, decreased motivation, and heightened levels of anxiety . In addition, the current corporate regime of Common Core aligned high stakes tests are not developmentally appropriate, adding an entirely new level of stress that is creating a generation of young children who view themselves as failures. Early childhood health and education professionals wrote a joint statement in 2010 demanding that the K-3 Common Core standards be withdrawn. They state, “The proposed standards conflict with compelling new research in cognitive science, neuroscience, child development, and early childhood education about how young children learn, what they need to learn, and how best to teach them in kindergarten and the early grades.”
We join hands and stand strong with the teachers who recognize the effects of poverty on brain development. Fifty-one percentof public school children are currently living in poverty. Research reveals that the stresses of poverty cause changes in brain development that negatively impact student learning. High stakes and high stress testing should not be inflicted on children living in poverty. Such toxic testing further increases the damage done to the pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain which deals with problem solving.
We join hands with these teachers who recognize the harm these tests inflict on our children of color, children with exceptional needs, and children who suffer from emotional stresses such as anxiety, OCD and suicidal thoughts.
We join hands with these teachers who recognize that these high stakes tests harm even our good test takers, who receive praise for a score that narrowly defines who they are to a number.
While joining hands, we ask President Eskelsen Garcia and President Weingarten to provide support in the form of legal support, press and social media support – local and national if needed – to union members who are finding their voices and refusing to obey unjust laws which harm our children. It is essential that the unions come forward to stand by these members and support them in fighting back against those who demand that we submit to laws that harm children cognitively, emotionally and physically.
If a teacher is being harassed and/or is in jeopardy of losing his or her job due to test administration refusal, it’s essential that we reach out to national and let them know. President Eskelsen Garcia can be reached at @Lily_NEA or leskelsen@nea.org and President Weingarten can be reached at @rweingarten or randiweingarten@gmail.com .
We at United Opt Out ask that all citizens stand up for action that lifts up and protects the teachers who honor and defend America’s children. We ask that our unions make good on their promise to provide support for these teachers who stand up – these teachers who have a moral obligation to disobey unjust laws. If your local has not yet created a resolution to support teachers who refuse to administer high stakes tests, create a resolution now. Seek out advice and support from locals, such asAurora Education Association in Colorado, who has already created a resolution.
We send out this reminder today as each week there are more teachers standing up to #defendchildren as they refuse to administer these high stakes corporate tests.
Join us by forwarding this call to action to President Eskelsen Garcia and President Weingarten and by sharing it on Twitter using hashtag #defendchildren.
The current list of teachers around the country who have refused to administer high stakes tests includes:Teachers who #defendchildren: AFT & NEA Call to Action - UNITED OPT OUT: The Movement to End Corporate Education Reform:
