It’s been six months since I last posted to this blog. One of the reasons I have not posted in the past six months is that, as far as my job is concerned, not that much has changed, and almost all of this monotony is due to No Child Left Behind. I actually had hoped that, when Barack Obama took office, being the Democrat that he is, NCLB would be dismantled. No such luck.
I continue to be required to participate in meeting after meeting, all designed around data in some way, and usually scheduled during the teaching day, resulting in a substitute teaching my students. Sigh! As I have often said to my colleague, our students are not children anymore, they are merely data generators.
I am being required to teach in a manner that I strongly feel is not good for children. So, since I am old enough, and have taught long enough, and got my Master’s degree so that I could have my retirement allotment be based on the higher salary, I am retiring in June. The primary reason for my retiring is because I can no longer teach with a clear conscience.
I know that many of my colleagues agree with me. However, for their own reasons, they are choosing not to stand up and collectively say, “We refuse to go along with all this. It’s not good for the children!” There is strength in numbers. If the tenured teachers refused, as a group to do what they all know is not good for the children, the “powers that be” would be disenfranchised.
It is time that public school teachers put their collective foot down and refused to go along with the straight jacket known as No Child Left Behind. It is time for the school districts to refuse funds that come from NCLB. I realize that these words are almost heretical in today’s economy, but the price of participation just so the districts can have more money to spend is just too high! The price is the well being of our children, and the future they will make for us. Now that’s scary!
