Teacher: I’ll ask a pilot how to fly a plane, not a CEO. Why won’t policymakers listen to educators?
Back when the No Child Left Behind K-12 education law was being written some 15 years ago, the authors laid out an entire new accountability system for all public schools in the country without asking a single teacher for help. Since then, many teachers still feel that education policymakers pay them lip service at best and don’t really care — or trust — what they think about how to improve schools for all children. Here’s a post that speaks to this problem, by Ashley Lamb-Sinclair, the 2016 Kentucky Teacher of the Year.
Lamb-Sinclair is finishing up a sabbatical with the Kentucky Department of Education and returning to full time classroom teaching this fall. She teaches high school English and creative writing in Kentucky and authors the www.beautifuljunkyard.com website. (Twitter handle: @AshleyLambS)
By Ashley Lamb-Sinclair
I’m a pretty relaxed flyer, and not in the annoying way that some people can be by bragging that they just love turbulence. Mostly, I say a quick prayer, close my eyes during takeoff and landing, and bury my face in a book while mentally checking out for the rest of the flight. It typically works.
But on a recent trip to Finland and the Hague for the Global Student Leaders Summit organized through a collaboration between the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), which runs the National Teacher of the Year Program, and EF Education First, I truly thought I was going to die. On the FinnAir flight to Helsinki from Chicago, we hit thunderstorms somewhere over Canada, and for two straight hours in the middle of the night, we endured the worst turbulence I have ever experienced. A woman across the aisle from me had a full blown panic attack, breathing into a paper bag and rocking back and forth. Someone behind me periodically screamed each time the plane bounced. A mother and small child unfortunate enough not to be Teacher: I’ll ask a pilot how to fly a plane, not a CEO. Why won’t policymakers listen to educators? - The Washington Post:
