Whew!

Well, it’s officially done. I am a retired teacher now. My last work day was Thursday, June 11, 2009, a day without students. The students’ last day was Wednesday, June 10, 2009.

My decision to retire this year was made easier by at least two factors: first, as my previous blogs have indicated, I have become fed up with the way public education is being conducted now. Second, due to the dismal economy, my school district offered a generous Supplemental Employees’ Retirement Program (SERP) as a way to entice us expensive long-term teachers to retire.

As this school year progressed, I became more and more uncomfortable with the things I was expected to be doing in my classroom. A new, one-size-fits-extremely-few teaching strategy was being forced upon us. Not only were we expected to eagerly participate in two-hour planning sessions – for one lesson, with our students being taught by a substitute teacher – but a few days after the planning session, we were observed by no less than two clipboard-holding, note-taking people while we taught the afore-planned lesson. We were being observed to see if we were following all the prescribed steps, in the prescribed manner, without any unnecessary side trips or taking advantage of “teachable moments.”

I feel as if all my individuality and creativity was not only undesired, but downright discouraged. For example, we were required to use some sort of device on which the students’ names could be written, such as craft sticks, key tags, etc. for the purpose of randomly selecting students to respond to questions. We were not allowed to use our best teacher judgment and call on the students whom we felt would need to be brought back from their apparent day dream, or a student whose answer we felt would benefit the responder as well as the class.

Here is where the frustration began: I was progressing through the ever-so-scripted lesson, teaching, asking, pausing, and picking responders. At one point, I had only asked two randomly-selected students and proceeded with the next question whereupon the coach interrupted me to tell me that I must select a third student to respond to the question. It could not be just two, it had to be three. It seems like such a minor thing, but it is an indication of the absurdity of it all.

The idea behind all this is the theory that, with all this somewhat-scripted lesson delivery, the students will make bigger gains in learning, which would raise their scores on the standardized tests, and therefore make the school look good. Students have become nothing more than data generators.

This is just one thread in the fabric of reasons why I can no longer, in good conscience, continue to teach in the public school. Thankfully, I am at an age, and have the years necessary to be able to retire without losing too much.

I may not be a public school teacher anymore, but I fully intend to keep my hand in education by volunteering. I also would be very good at tutoring children who are struggling to become emergent readers. I have so many wonderful, creative ideas! I cannot wait to put some of them to good use.