There have been many responses to Ali regarding her principal's mandate
that students should not be reading at school. But to me, the
absolutely worst part of the post, even worse than the principal's
orders, is this:
"No one else on my "team" said anything...they just agreed with her."
If teachers stood together against these mandates .... REALLY stood
together.... less of them would be coming down the pike. That would
mean union involvement, true solidarity, flyers to parents, occupying
staff meetings..... the whole shebang. The fact that there are lone
voices like Ali's out there, with the majority of teachers on their
staffs just going along with the mandates and even, as Ali's colleagues
did, agreeing with them, does not bode well.
Teachers, as a group, are their own worst enemy. They are frogs boiling
in a pot. It will get lots worse before it gets better.
Renee
On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 4:53 PM, <rascal...@aol.com> wrote:
I'm not sure why I'm posting this, other than I'm searching for some
company in my despair. Or possibly you can lead me to some ways to
deal
with
this situation.
Today, as we were closing up school for the year, we were discussing
next
year's kids and administration wanted to know "how we were going to
group
them." (That in and of itself always bothers me). However the
statement
that truly sent me spinning, was in regard to giving the students
individual
reading time within class. My administrator flat out told me (and my
team),
" We do not give the students time to read in class. You must be
working
with the students in small groups and they should be engaged in
'targeted
skills" not reading." Of course my response was, "How do we expect
our
students to become better readers if we don't give them time to read
(of
course
teaching them "how" to read)?" She simply said, "They have to do
that at
home." Close of discussion.
No one else on my "team" said anything...they just agreed with her.
My heart sank. I am so disappointed in the direction our education
system
is taking us in my state and county. It's all about the pass rate
on the
test and looking at data. My students are so much more than data!
Ugh! I'm sure you can all relate and have stories very similar to
mine.
I'm just disheartened. :-(
Ali/FL
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that's given to us."
~ Gandalf ~ The Fellowship of the Ring ~ J.R.R. Tolkein
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